This paper underlines the importance of redefining progress as a process that requires democratic ownership poverty reduction efforts. It understands democratic ownership as engagement of society in meaningful participation in planning, budgeting implementation and monitoring.

It provides a critical look at currently used discourse in the development assistance community regarding the necessity of equitable development, the social price of growth, the imperative of institutions, fallacies of reduction, sequencing of reforms and normative arguments. In so doing, it underlines the need to further unpack the concept of governance.

Reviewing governance with different adjectives, including good governance, developmental governance and democratic governance, we conclude that democratic ownership is the best guarantee for securing progress in its broadest sense, inclusive of the poor, women and marginalized.

We understand democratic governance as a process of enhancing ownership of development, where ownership goes beyond national sovereignty to encompass alignment to national priorities and engagement of society in meaningful participation in planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring.