Donors, recipients to reform aid package (page 15)

Saturday, September 6, 2008.

DONORS and recipients of development aid have resolved to take bold steps to reform the way aid is given and disbursed to enhance its effectiveness on developing economies.
The steps include relaxing conditionalities to enable developing nations to decide what to use aid for and where to source their supplies, increasing the quantum of aid where necessary and releasing amounts pledged to ensure predictability to enable recipient countries to plan three to five years ahead.
This is contained in a 32-point communiqué christened “Accra Agenda for Action” issued after the three-day Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that ended in Accra last Thursday.
After three days of intense negotiations, the participants, who came from all the six continents of the world, finally endorsed the 32-point agenda described by many as a bold step towards efficient aid management.
The agenda has been described as the product of an unprecedented alliance by development partners, developing and donor countries, emerging economies, the United Nations (UN), multilateral institutions, the Global Fund and civil society organisations.
The communiqué was issued after long hours of debate between the rich and the poor countries at the Accra Forum hosted by the Government of Ghana and sponsored by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, which took place from September 2 to 4, 2008.
A summary of the key points agreed on by both the donors and the recipients are: Predictability— which required donors to provide three to five-year prior information on their planned aid to partner countries to enable them to plan effectively;
Country System —which insisted that partner country systems must be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor systems; and Conditionally —which pointed out that donors would have to switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development objectives.
There was also the issue of Untying —which indicated that donors would have to relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they could get the best quality at the lowest price.
During deliberations it came out that the reforms agreed on, would require continued high-level political support, peer pressure, and co-ordinated action at global, regional, and country levels.
“To achieve them, we renew our commitment to the principles and targets established in the Paris Declaration, and will continue to assess progress in implementing them,” they assured.
As part of the agenda for action, the participants requested a technical group called the “Working Party on Aid Effectiveness” to continue monitoring progress on implementing the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action and to report back to the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness scheduled for December 2011.
“We recognise that additional work will be required to improve the methodology and indicators of progress of aid effectiveness,” they stressed.
They pointed out that the commitments they agreed on will need to be adapted to different country circumstances —including countries in situations of fragility, small states, and middle-income countries.
“To this end, we encourage developing countries to design —with active support from donors and country-based action plans that set out time-bound and monitorable proposals —to implement the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action,” said the communiqué, adding that in 2011, the countries would undertake the third round of monitoring that would tell them whether they had achieved the set target.
In addition, the group requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to transmit the conclusions of the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to the High-Level event on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in New York later this month and the Financing for Development Review meeting in Doha in December 2008.
In conclusion the participants stressed that, “Today, more than ever, we resolve to work together to help countries across the world build the successful future all of us want to see—a future based on a shared commitment to overcome poverty, a future where no countries will depend on aid.”