International
Development Assistance
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Aid is working
Today the Washington Post is running a great op-ed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. In the piece, the President talks about how the financial crisis threatens Africa’s turnaround and she also weighs in on how development assistance – along with stronger African leadership and better governance — has contributed to important progress in Africa over the past ten years.
President Sirleaf’s commentary is directly relevant to the current debate about the value of aid. She makes clear that aid has been an important component in Africa’s recent progress and cutting aid would have negative effects on poverty and stability on the continent. Thus she provides a very different view from that offered in the new book Dead Aid:
While international attention has been understandably focused on events in Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe, countries across the continent including Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Liberia have been quietly turning around. Economic growth rates regularly exceed 5 percent in many nations. Since 2000, 34 million more African children are in school. More than 2 million Africans are on lifesaving HIV/AIDS medicines. Malaria deaths have been halved in Rwanda and Ethiopia, and the disease has been virtually eradicated in Zanzibar. Poverty rates are falling fast, from 58 to 51 percent across the continent in just six years, according to the World Bank.
The key to this progress is stronger African leadership and more accountable governance. Today, more than 20 African countries are democracies, up from just three in the 1980s; they have competitive elections and improved human rights, and their news media are much freer. These efforts have been supported by increasingly effective development assistance from the United States and other partners.
The citizens and leaders of donor nations should recognize how important their assistance has been to the new leadership in Africa and how appreciative most Africans are for this partnership. Critics say that African economies are shrinking, that poverty is rising and that failing aid is the culprit. But this argument is at least a decade out of date. Africa’s turnaround is real, the evidence indisputable. Africans themselves have been the key to this reversal, but more effective aid has played an important role. Reducing aid would slow private-sector growth, stall poverty reduction, and undermine peace and stability in countries that are struggling to become part of the global economy.
-Kathy McKiernan
Breaking News: DAC Releases Annual Report
Each year in early April, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) releases preliminary figures for what each large donor country spent on official development assistance the year before. This morning, the DAC released the figures for 2008. There is some good and bad news in there. Though we will post much more analysis later in the day, here is a quick summary of ODA for sub-Saharan Africa.
A few notes for accountants, seasoned advocates and others who follow the DAC and their processes. These are preliminary figures for 2008 ODA. They are net of debt relief, reported in 2008 US dollars, and do impute contributions through multilateral organizations to sub-Saharan Africa. SSA below means sub-Saharan Africa.
- OVERALL DAC donors: ODA to SSA was $36.661 billion, an increase of 11% over 2007
- G7: ODA to SSA was $25.165 billion, an increase of 14% over 2007
- Canada: Significant increases in bilateral ODA (47% over 2007) multilateral ODA (up by 63% over 2007) drove ODA to SSA up to $1.911 billion, up by 52% over 2007
- France: A decline in bilateral ODA to SSA drive decreases in ODA to SSA to $3.54 billion in 2008, down by 15% from 2007
- Germany: Germany’s ODA to SSA was $3.897 billion, up by 15% - $513 million – over 2007
- Italy: ODA to SSA in 2008 is $1.43 billion, down by 4% or $55 million largely due to falls in Italy’s multilateral contribution
- Japan: 2008 ODA to SSA is $2.6 billion, an increase of 56%, up by $938 million including large increases in multilateral (up 89% over 2007) and bilateral (up 31% over 2007) ODA
- United States: Large increases in bilateral ODA sent total ODA to SSA up by 26% over 2007 figures to $7.75 billion in 2008
- United Kingdom: ODA to SSA was $4.02 billion, a increase of 3% - or $100 million – over 2007 figures
More reactions to come shortly.
-Josh Lozman, Deputy Policy Director
ONE in Ghana: Development and Pineapples
As we wrote about yesterday, some ONE staff are currently traveling through Ghana and Nigeria to see firsthand some of the extreme poverty and development issues currently taking place in Africa. Today Chandler Smith brings us this account about the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Click here to read more about this ongoing series on the ONE Blog.
Working in the development community, I’ve heard a lot about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). I’ve heard about how it’s a “different kind of program” and how it works with other countries to make sure that U.S funds are used for projects that are country-owned and will be sustainable in the future.
Today, I saw a lot of that talk put to action. We drove east of Accra on Highway 1–the most visible MCC project in Ghana. Basically, the MCC is a U.S. government mechanism that provides large-scale, long-term funding for developing countries who have met a specific set of indicators reflecting good governance, economic investment, and investment in people. Once selected for MCC funding, for example, Ghana had to develop a compact proposal explaining the initiatives they would like funded, and agreeing to transparency and careful accounting during implementation of the projects. The U.S. not only provides the funds for the projects – like the highway – but the MCC helps Ghana establish an on-the-ground group to manage the projects. Compacts run for five years – making funding predictable and allowing longer-term projects – like highway building – to take place.
Highway 1 feeds from the rural areas into Accra and is the major transportation artery in the country. When it is finished, its six-lanes will enable workers to commute to Accra and goods to be transported to the airport for export in a timely manner.
We travelled on Highway 1 to a farm where as many as 50 farmers have been trained by the Millennium Development Authority - the local group that helps implement all of the MCC projects in Ghana. The farmers have learned how to and improve their access to seed and fertilizer, and received other vital training. There, the farmers told us a little bit about how this training has improved production on the farm. For more on that, check out this video:
The highlight of today’s visit was without a doubt the Jei River pineapple farm. Jei River was started with funding from the MCC. With this start-up money, the farm has grown to be one of the largest in Ghana and specializes in four different types of pineapple. My favorite kind was the Sugar Loaf pineapple. It is white both on the inside and outside, and is very sweet (just as the name suggests). This farm was an example of how a small loan and proper training can become a sustainable farm with as many as 400 workers.
These are just a few of the places we visited today, and each time we arrive somewhere new, I am struck by the resourcefulness and diligence of each individual. I’ve also learned how important it is that we listen to people on the ground to make sure that whatever the United States does to provide aid ensures sustainability for the future. The Millennium Challenge Corporation appears to be a pretty good start.
-Chandler Smith
Grant Could Boost Incomes for African Farmers
Last week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced two new grants designed to support small cocoa and cashew farmers in Africa. The $48 million in total funding will support public-private partnership projects that aim to boost production for smallholder farmers and expand productivity in the cashew and cocoa sectors in Africa.
The World Cocoa Foundation received $23 million for cocoa initiatives, and one of the German government’s development agencies, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), was given $25 million for cashew projects in Africa. Both grants awarded will supplement $42 million in cash and in-kind contributions from the private sector, NGOs, and local governments that will provide technical assistance to farmers and the industries.
Smallholder agriculture is a source of income and livelihood for more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s population. According to the Foundation’s press release, cocoa is a key export from West Africa and accounts for 70% of the world’s supply, while Africa produces one third of the world’s cashew crop. Initiatives that improve the quality and yield for these crops have the potential to increase incomes and improve livelihoods of thousands of farming families.
The cocoa project will focus on farmer training and education, crop diversification, and making the supply chain more efficient, and aims to double the incomes of smallholder cocoa farmers. The five-year project will reach approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation commented on the grant announcement, “Cocoa has the potential to deliver significant improvements in income as well as in family and community well-being across rural West and Central Africa.”
Africa’s cashew market is currently impeded by a lack of cashew processing facilities. The cashew project plans to, build processing capacity, increase farmer productivity, and increase links between farmers and the marketplace. The project aims to help 150,000 smallholder farmers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Mozambique increase their incomes by 50 percent by 2012. The development or expansion of local factories will also provide new employment opportunities in these countries.
Funding like these grants, that come with technical assistance and partner expertise, and focus on expanding opportunities for agriculture and trade, are an exciting step towards harnessing the power of agriculture to positively impact livelihoods in Africa.
-Beth Adler
ONE Partners Propose Strategy to End Global Hunger
On Tuesday, a broad-based coalition that includes several of ONE’s partners launched A Roadmap to End Global Hunger – a comprehensive strategy for addressing global hunger through short, medium, and long-term initiatives and reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving hunger by 2015. Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) joined the co-sponsoring NGOs* at Tuesday’s release on Capitol Hill, and new bipartisan legislation that incorporates the key points of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
The Roadmap pitches several strategies for addressing the dire situation of global hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 963 million people are hungry around the world, the majority of whom live in developing countries. As the document notes, despite previous U.S. commitments to end global hunger, the number of hungry people continues to rise as global hunger is exacerbated by continued higher than average food prices and the global economic downturn. The Roadmap calls for a total of approximately $50 billion in U.S. funding for agriculture and food security initiatives over five years.
The document details the need for a faster, more efficient response to food emergencies and emphasizes the importance of flexibility in the provision of emergency food assistance, including options for buying food locally and regionally, and implementing voucher programs where food is available but families are too poor to afford it. The plan calls for donated food aid, like bags of rice or maize, as well as cash assistance that can provide timely and appropriate emergency assistance. The plan also calls for additional funding for safety-net programs – like cash-for-work and school feeding programs - to prevent the most vulnerable populations from descending further into hunger. It also stresses the importance of establishing and expanding early childhood nutrition programs.
In order to promote the development of the agricultural sector in the developing world and break the cycle of hunger and poverty, the Roadmap suggests a more than quadruple investment in market-based agriculture and market development. The suggested $1.38 billion over five years would be aimed at initiatives supporting low-income, smallholder farmers – particularly women. Considering that agriculture employs nearly two-thirds of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa, programs that assist farmers in producing more goods, and helping farmers access markets in which to sell these goods, could have a wide-spread, positive impact on household income and food security.
The Roadmap calls for the (more…)
How did the G8 do for Africa? The Final Report Card
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll remember back in June that ONE released the 2008 DATA Report (and blog posts). The DATA report is ONE’s chance each year to publish progress on keeping the promises that the G8 countries made to Africa back in 2005. Promises are great, but when they don’t lead to action, we can’t let this go unnoticed.
The DATA Report is published in June each year to make the data available before the G8 Summit which usually happens in early July. Though this can help us achieve maximum impact with the report, there is a disadvantage to this. The OECD’s DAC (Development Assistance Committee), who collects the data from governments, publishes only preliminary figures in April; we don’t get the final, and more thoroughly reviewed data, until December. This year’s final review uncovered some significant differences in country progress so ONE has released an update to the 2008 DATA Report.
Before I get into the numbers, a quick note about what these numbers are and what they are not. For those of you in the United States, we often write about authorizations, budgets and appropriations – we come to you often to use your voice to impact these things. What the DAC measures is disbursement, or how much money actually left the US government’s treasury in a given year. This is true for other donor nations as well – this is not the budget or the CSR (in the UK), this is how much was actually spent. Though primarily we do need to get a big enough appropriation/budget to enable disbursements, we also need to make sure that it is being sent to promote African development and not just sitting in a bank account in the donor country. Using the DAC’s figures gives advocates a universal measure across OECD donor nations and is the way the Gleneagles commitments are monitored.
So, what are the final numbers?
The final figures reveal that in total, donors provided (more…)
Germany increases development assistance by $1.1 billion
Last Friday, the German parliament (the Bundestag) approved its 2009 budget with a $1.1 billion (800 million Euro) increase in development assistance spending for next year.
This is great news and marks the third year in a row that Germany has made impressive increases in development spending. This is an increase of more than 12% since 2008, the largest for any ministry in Germany. We know that this money will make a difference- it can be used, for example, to buy and distribute 180 million insecticide treated bed nets or to supply 5.5 million AIDS-patients with antiretroviral treatment for a whole year.
A substantial portion of the increase (225 million Euro) will be generated through an innovative financing scheme launched by the German government last year. Through this scheme, Co2-certificates are auctioned off to German industry to help pay for development projects. Development funding from this source has almost doubled since 2008- from 120 million to 225 million Euro. Steep increases can be expected in the years ahead. And for the first time, in 2009 these funds can be partly used for development assistance in any sector (as opposed to being fully earmarked for funding climate-related activities like adaptation and mitigation).
This decision pushes Germany a step closer towards fulfilling its aid commitments to the world’s poorest countries. However, increases from Germany and the rest of the G8 will need to accelerate much faster to meet the promises made in 2005 at the Gleneagles summit. Here in Europe, we’re hopeful that President-elect Obama’s commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals and doubling foreign assistance will play an exemplary role for Germany and the rest of the EU and inject new momentum into meeting these commitments.
-Andreas Huebers, ONE Germany
Highlights from the G20
I know that you have all been eagerly awaiting ONE’s analysis of the G20 economic summit that took place this past Saturday. To re-cap, in October, President Bush called for a first-ever meeting of the G20 to discuss solutions to the global financial crisis, and mechanisms to prevent future crises. The G20 is a group of finance ministers from the world’s leading economies (the G8, the European Union and Australia), as well as a group of ten emerging economies including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. After the summit, officials issued a communiqué detailing their resolutions. Here are a few highlights:
- Developing Country Representation: The G20 calls for better representation of developing countries – both emerging economies and poor countries - in the Bretton Woods Institutions like the IMF and World Bank, in order to accurately reflect the world economy and increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of these institutions. The G20 calls for these reformed institutions to play a role in identifying future crises and responding to them.
- Trade: The G20 rejects the impulse to turn to protectionist measures to stabilize their economies and promises to refrain from raising new barriers to trade or investment in the next 12 months. The G20 also calls for a successful completion to the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round trade talks.
- Official Development Assistance (ODA): Considering the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, and particularly on the most vulnerable in those countries, the G20 countries reaffirm the importance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their development assistance commitments. They urge all countries to undertake commitments consistent with their capacities, and re-iterate the principles agreed upon at the UN Conference on Financing for Development that took place in Monterrey in 2002 that emphasize country ownership of and mobilizing all sources of financing for development.
- Anti-Corruption: (more…)
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
DAY 3: G8 Summit Closes
The G8 Summit closed yesterday and I’m already back in Tokyo which feels a bit strange. The final day was once again busy but interesting… The G8 Chair’s summary was released by Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan, and leaders of the G8 held their press conferences. Meanwhile, we delivered our final verdict on the Summit - Bob Geldof was our unofficial ‘spokesperson’ for the day and he really worked hard to get the message out, being interviewed by journalists from as far afield as Russia and the Middle East as well as the more usual suspects.
The media centre thinned out early evening - leaders had headed back home, and many journalists and organisations followed suit. Others were headed for beers, including us! The NGOs had a small get-together at the canteen nearby - it was such a relief to stop for a moment and bond over drinks and food with our friends and colleagues.
Some were celebrating victories, while others were outraged by the result. We can however all claim at least one important albeit small victory – the media coverage of civil society opinions and activities at the G8 this year has been very high, which we didn’t really anticipate. Especially in Japan, where advocacy is still a new concept and NGOs have struggled to be recognized as a credible voice. Hokkaido has been different in this respect – major media outlets have all carried stories and news articles on these ‘outside’ opinions daily. It’s not without problems of course - the Japanese government has refused entry of at least 19 activists into the country – but this year highlighted that NGOs are now established as an integral part of the G8 Summit process and that our voices really do matter.
ONE’s final verdict was that the “G8 post small gains to the poorest, but little that’s new.” While there was some progress, much more needs to be done if the G8 countries are serious about achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), an internationally agreed set of goals that if delivered could save millions of lives.
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The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
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TAGS: Dead Aid is Dead Wrong, Development Assistance, Liberia, Policy News