I came away from Busan feeling a bit queasy. Not because of the week-long jet lag and lack of sleep, or because Busan has been desperately disappointing for aid effectiveness. It has not, although it remains to be seen whether it will be remembered as the last whimper of the aid effectiveness agenda or the first hurrah of a global partnership for effective development cooperation.
Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. This definition includes corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors. In an aim to quantify and compare perceived corruption levels across different countries, TI created the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which ranks countries according to perceptions of corruption in the public sector.
The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness isn’t even finished yet, but we can already log big wins for transparent and accountable aid. In Secretary Clinton’s keynote address at the forum in South Korea, she officially announced that the United States would be signing the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), something that ONE has been pushing hard on in advance of Busan. As ONE’s Executive Director, Sheila Nix said:
“Secretary Clinton’s announcement that the United States will join the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) reinforces America’s leadership in making foreign assistance more transparent and accountable. Being open and clear about how the U.S. is spending foreign aid—where and on what—will help make aid more efficient and accountable to US taxpayers and will maximize resources to help those living on less than $1.25 lift themselves out of poverty.”
Last week in Tanzania, nearly 100 civil society groups and 12 international organizations, including the International Budget Partnership, Greenpeace, ONE and many smaller organizations from across the globe, launched a global effort to make public budgets transparent, participatory and accountable. Budgets are the most critical tool that governments have to address problems like poverty, provide critical services like education and health care, and invest in their country’s future. When the political speeches end, it is how governments actually manage funds to meet their promises and priorities that matters.
The Global Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability, and Participation envisions public finance systems that make all budget information easily accessible, provide meaningful opportunities for citizens and civil society to participate in budget decisions and oversight throughout the process, and include strong institutions to hold governments accountable for how they raise and spend the public’s money.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) released its inaugural special report analyzing the effects of the “Arab Spring” on democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. Unprecedented popular protests in North Africa demanding greater political freedom, dignity and economic opportunity have captivated the world’s attention since they burst onto the global stage in January 2011. The subsequent resignations of long-time autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia, the toppling of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, and a shift toward constitutional monarchy in Morocco have dramatically reshaped state-citizen relations in this long static region.
Complex regulations and high start-up costs can be a major barrier to business growth and development in Africa. However, the World Bank’s 9th Doing Business report, “Doing Business in a More Transparent World” released last week found that “over the last year a record number of governments in sub-Saharan Africa changed their economy’s regulatory environment to make it easier for domestic firms to start up and operate.”
Edwina Assan, who runs EdTek Batiks, sells colorful wax batik fabrics in Accra, Ghana.
There has been an unprecedented show of unity in Uganda’s parliament, as opposition and pro-government ministers of parliament (MPs) have joined together to demand a temporary halt in the completion of oil agreements until an independent regulator is established. This move was prompted by a collective sense of suspicion about Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) signed between the Ugandan government and two oil companies, the Italian firm ENI and the Irish company Tullow Oil. Ugandans had hoped that the emerging oil sector would help to create jobs, improve infrastructure and boost the economy. However,as the government continuously refused to make public the details of PSAs, suspicions grew that ordinary Ugandans were not going to benefit from the emerging oil sector.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
