Mind the Middle - Country Plans: the missing middle of Sida's country strategy process

A repeated criticism against Sida's country strategies is that they do not provide concrete guidance for the selection and orientation of co-operation activities. This critique is usually directed at the country strategy paper, often found to be a document so vague and void of steering power that it cannot be translated by Sida staff into a common agency approach during the strategy period. The main point of this report is to argue for some developed thinking about Sida's country strategies.