How can donors promote national ownership in the projects and programmes they fund? How do national counterparts regard ownership? How to translate principles articulated in international documents, such as the Paris Declaration, into project design and implementation? Can the imperatives of promoting ownership apply equally for anti-corruption projects?

This Practice Insight explores how ownership is perceived at the levels of donor, international implementer, and national stakeholders involved in the USAID-supported Municipal Economic Growth Activity (MEGA) programme in Serbia. The lessons gathered here both introduce unexpected insights and confirm long-established project design and management practices.