Next week, a team from ONE is headed to Accra, Ghana for a high-level summit on aid effectivenes. The meeting will bring together government ministers, civil society organizations and development experts to focus on maximizing the effectiveness of the $100 billion of development assistance that is spent around the world each year.

There’s still a long way to go to ensure that all aid is delivered in a way that maximizes results like these. Development assistance works best where it is driven by local activities and initiative, when it is delivered promptly and predictably and above all where there is local accountability for its use.

In 2005, over 100 countries came to consensus on what is necessary for aid to be effective and signed on to the Paris Declaration, which is grounded on five principles:

Ownership: Poor countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies, and coordinate development actions.

Alignment: Donors base their overall support on partner countries’ national development strategies, institutions, and procedures.

Harmonization: Donors’ actions are more harmonized, transparent, and collectively effective.

Managing for results: Managing resources and improving decision making for development results.

Mutual accountability: Donors and partners are accountable for development results.

The Paris Declaration was an important first step in improving the effectiveness of aid. The next step is implementation. Recent monitoring including ONE’s 2008 DATA Report shows that donors have been slow in translating their commitments into action. The summit in Accra is an important moment for countries to deliver on their commitments and set specific, time-bound actions to implement the principles set forth in Paris.

Stay tuned here for a more detailed look at what ONE is asking for at the summit and updates from our team in Accra.