African Finance Officials Call G20 to Action

This past Tuesday, a group of African finance officials met in Tunis to discuss the impacts of the global financial crisis on the continent and strategize about how to address the likely consequences. The meeting was a call to action from the African financial community to the leaders attending the G20 summit to put the concerns of the developing world on the agenda for the meeting, which begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and to consider Africa’s dire situation when addressing the financial crisis. As we’ve outlined in previous posts, for many African countries the financial crisis could mean an increase in poverty and inflation, a decrease in economic growth, and a deepening of the food and fuel crises already gripping the continent.

ONE’s Edith Jibunoh in Nigeria has sent along a few highlights from the communiqué issued at the meeting which detail important points for this weekend’s G20 summit and the upcoming Financing for Development conference in Doha.

• Ministers said that the financial crisis is undermining Africa’s progress made in the last ten years and, along with the impact of climate change, will hamper countries’ abilities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They also expressed concern for the impact the crisis would have on trade and investment.
• On trade, the ministers urged a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of global trade negotiations, especially considering the spillover of the financial crisis to trade. They promised do their part by taking steps to improve the supply capacity in African countries through enhancing competitiveness, building infrastructure, and promoting greater economic integration within Africa. Ministers also promised to deepen their economic reforms and strengthen structures of governance and accountability.
• The Ministers also emphasized the importance of the international community keeping their commitments to Africa to improve aid quality, consistent with the Paris Declaration and Accra Call to Action. They asked that the F4D conference in Doha endorse these issues and reiterate their commitments.
• Finally, the participants asked South Africa to convey their views at the upcoming G20 meeting, although they stressed that one country representing the continent was not a substitute for inclusive African participation. They called for “new multilateralism” that fully reflects current realities and ensures the proper representation of all countries.

ONE will be bringing you information about the outcome of the G20 summit next week, so be sure to check back here.

-Beth Adler

Action on Aid Effectiveness in Accra

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, (more…)

Making Aid Work Better

Hello from Accra, Ghana, where ONE is taking part in major meetings about aid effectiveness this week.

A team from our London and Nigeria offices is here, joining hundreds of others from government and civil society from around the world, to make aid work harder in the fight against poverty.

We know that effective aid is improving the lives of millions of people, but a slowing global economy and rising food and fuel costs makes it all the more important that every cent is spent well.

There are many ways to improve aid effectiveness. ONE, as part of a new group called “Publish What You Fund,” is concentrating on improving the quality of information on aid spending.

Without good information, planning for schools, hospitals, roads, sanitation and the other elements of development is extremely difficult. Citizens also find it very hard to hold their governments accountable. And without good information, it is impossible to be sure that resources are being used well.

In many very poor countries, up to half of spending on donor-funded development projects is done outside government. This is sometimes necessary if local systems aren’t in place, but this can also lead to a lot of duplication and waste of resources.

At the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra this week, (more…)

Destination: Accra

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.