Progress Towards Aid Effectiveness Not Fast Enough
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Sep 05, 2008 (Public Agenda/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — World leaders have been told to gear up or miss international commitments and targets for effective aid by 2010.
According to the findings of the “2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration”, progress towards aid effectiveness is being made, “but not fast enough.”
The document, made available at the opening of the just-ended 3rd High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-3), warned, “Unless they seriously gear up their efforts, partner countries and their external partners will not meet international commitments and targets for effective aid by 2010.”
Thus, “Action is needed now,” it said and made three-high level policy recommendations that will help accelerate progress and transform the aid relationship into a full partnership.
Dr. Sulley Gariba, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Alternatives, Tamale, Ghana, described the findings of the survey as “accurate” in an interview with Public Agenda soon after the first plenary discussions at the HLF-3 in Accra on Tuesday.
But he explains that the report basically details the extent to which behaviours are changing based on awareness about the principles adopted in Paris three years ago. “We are not yet reporting the effectiveness of the Paris Declaration,” he said, indicating that, that will be done at the next HLF.
At the HLF-2 in Paris in 2005, the international community adopted the “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.” The declaration had five focal principles namely: country ownership of development strategies; alignment with country strategies; harmonization of donor actions and increased transparency; managing for better results; and mutual accountability for development results.
From September 2-4, 2008, the Government of Ghana hosted more than 1,200 representatives of governments of aid-receiving countries, donor institutions, foundations, parliaments and civil society organisations as they gathered in Accra to take stock of the previously achieved consensus.
From the onset, expectations were made clear, especially by civil society groups and governments of aid-receiving countries; they wanted more ownership of development programmes and little influence from donors. It did not however appear as though donors were prepared to make any further concessions than those they had already committed to.
When the event opened, Mrs. Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chief Advisor to the President of Ghana, said “In spite of all our efforts, and ironically, aid is getting more fragmented. The challenge of going forward must focus on greater alignment.”
She noted, “There is progress in some respects. Of course it is true as well that progress varies by country and by donor” and added, “There is much more to be done. We have to admit that the pace of progress made since 2005 is too slow.”
She said, “We need to increase our efforts at reform and action to meet the aid effectiveness targets we have committed to for 2010.”
Speaking about her country’s experience, Mariana Durlesteanu, Minister of Finance of Moldova, observed that while donors urged aid recipients to have fewer areas of priority, each donor wanted their preferred areas of priority to be considered. The complexity was that instead of having fewer priorities, countries rather ended up with more areas of priority.
Julian Lob-Levyt, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), was of the view that receiving countries should be able to determine what help they need and where they want to put it.
The period leading up to the forum saw several organisations make calls for reforms and commitments on the part of partners, especially donors. The World Bank for instance called for “bold new steps” to among others honour the commitments made in 2005 at the Gleneagles G8 Summit to increase official development assistance (ODA) to $130 billion per year. The Bank said currently there is a $39 billion annual shortfall.
It also wanted increase in predictability, flexibility and amount of food assistance - including the replacement of tied aid with cash so food can be purchased locally and get where it’s needed fast.
The Bank further called for increased transparency to enable donors and country partners see aid flows and better attack corruption. “Channel more aid through country budgets - to help build capacity and local institutions,” it also said.
The Bank also wants to see faster and more flexible aid to respond better to shocks such as food and fuel price hikes.
The United Nations Development Group (UNDG) also urged improved harmonization, alignment and management of aid. The group said in a statement that “Development finance often remains unpredictable, conditional and tied, when it should be aligned to countries’ priorities and systems. The Accra High-Level Forum must address these challenges and go beyond the commitments made in the Paris Declaration by articulating actions to which all parties can be held accountable.”
The group also stated that “Most donors are not on track to meet their stated commitments to scale up aid.”
Vietnam is one of the countries that have made progress in implementing the Paris Declaration. Even so, Cao Viet Sinh, Vietnam’s Vice Minister, Ministry of Planning and Investment, agreed with other developing countries and donors as well that “in order to successfully implement the Paris Declaration we should pay more attention to the following issues: bringing into play the country’s ownership; mobilizing wider and more effective participation of all stakeholders for development; and promoting result-based management for development and accountability.”
She basically re-echoed the three high-level recommendations made by the 2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration titled “Effective Aid by 2010? What It Will Take”, which assessed progress made in 54 partner countries.
The recommendations were that partners should systematically step up efforts to use and strengthen country systems as a way of reinforcing country ownership; strengthen accountability over development resources; and ensure cost-effective aid management.
The document concluded: “In order to change practices in international aid, we need to reshape deep-seated behaviours.”
Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Democratization and Human Rights