The 3-day negotiations in Accra between developed and developing countries have delivered a better result than we expected, especially on aid transparency, which we asked ONE members to push for in emails and calls to the World Bank and US government.

At the end of day two, it looked as though the result of the negotiations would be pretty soft; fine words, but few specifics. But on the third and final day the politicians arrived and the Europeans decided that the final text was not good enough!

They reopened negotiaitons and, as a result, all major donors have agreed to take a number of positive actions on transparency and predictability. They have agreed to provide regular and timely information on 3-5 year expenditure plans, making it much easier for recipient governments to plan.  Donors have also made specific commitments to use developing countries’ own systems for delivering aid. 

This is really important because at the moment almost half of all aid is spent without the government in those countries being involved. The aid goes direct to non-profits, charities, local authorities, hospitals etc. While central governments are not always the best channel for aid, the lack of information-sharing makes it very hard to make the most efficient use of resources. By making a bigger effort to use country systems for aid delivery, donors will also help to build up a country’s internal financial controls. By-passing those systems tends to undermine them.

In addition to these measures, donors have acknowledged the problem of donor ‘orphans.’ In other words, some issues and some countries are neglected by donors and get disproportionally little aid. With better information and transparency, donors should do a better job of spreading aid more fairly and effectively.

We know that aid works when it is based on the actual situation people face in developing countries, when it is used to build local capacity, and when it is carefully monitored – keep in if you like but there isn’t much evidence for this being the case, the way we currently monitor aid is rather contradictory to really wanting to get results…. However some donors have tended to deliver aid according to their own priorities and in line with their own budget cycles. Some donors are a bit too keen to plant their flag on aid and claim credit for it, rather than listening to and working with the people and governments who receive aid to find out what they really need.

This meeting felt like a real step forward.

-Katy Cronin