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September 2008
Special edition: From Accra
to action
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Go directly to: What the surveys are telling us
The HLF3: Making it happen The Accra HLF represents the next step: a
stock-taking two years before the 2010 due date for meeting the Paris
Declaration targets. The preparations for the HLF3 broadened and reinforced
the partnerships behind the Paris Declaration, consolidating the input of developing countries, donors of ODA,
hundreds of civil society organisations from around the world,
non-traditional donors, global funds and middle-income countries. The preparatory process was driven by
developing countries. A Contact Group of representatives from 15 African,
Asian, Latin American, Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries – co-ordinated
by Ghana – brought strong and coherent developing country input into the consultative
process. In addition, over 70 developing countries took part in five roll-out
workshops held in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America and 54 countries
collected national data for a monitoring survey to measure implementation of
the Paris Declaration. The results of this intensive and
collaborative process were evidenced by the extraordinary turn-out for the
Accra HLF: over 1700 participants, including more than 100 ministers and 80
civil society representatives. The high-level engagement at Accra will help
to sustain the political will needed to implement the fundamental changes
subscribed to in the Accra Agenda for Action.
What the surveys are telling us The first survey to monitor results and
progress – completed in 2006 – established a baseline. The 2008 Survey on Monitoring
the Paris Declaration offers a mid-point assessment of how donors
and partners are measuring up to their commitments. Fifty-four countries signed up and
delivered data for the 2008 survey – twenty more than in 2006. This increase
underlines a strong commitment by governments across the world to engage in
the aid reform effort. The benefits of the 2008 survey were felt
at the Accra High Level Forum. The cross-country and cross-donor data
collected provided the means to assess the state of play on aid
effectiveness, allowing donors and developing countries to pinpoint common
challenges and identify the actions needed to meet the 2010 targets. But
beyond the statistical analysis itself, the survey promoted dialogue among
governments, donors and other stakeholders as they scrutinised aid practices
at the country level. In doing so, it helped partner countries to recognise
and work on common challenges and led to a shared vision of what is needed to
reform aid. The results of the 2008 survey show that
progress is being made across all indicators and that change is possible when
there is strong commitment. Thirty-six per cent of the countries surveyed
have improved the quality of their pubic financial management systems, aid
untying has progressed, and donors are getting better at aligning their
programmes with country needs and at harmonising activities among themselves. Yet despite progress in these areas, the
survey clearly shows that there is still much to be done to reach the 2010
targets. For instance, while countries have significantly improved their
systems, donors – on the whole – have not responded by increasing the use of
these systems. Developing countries still need to work on making their
development strategies operational, and to develop sound frameworks for monitoring
their results. Furthermore, there are still high
transaction costs associated with aid – in particular, inordinate numbers of
donor missions and reports make it difficult for country authorities to focus
on delivering better results. In 2007, donors
made more than 14 000 visits to the 54 countries that took part in the
OECD survey; Vietnam alone received 752 missions. Finally, the lack of
predictability of aid flows makes it difficult for countries to plan; the
Survey shows that in 2007, only 46% of aid flows were disbursed according to
schedule. All of this sent a clear message to the
participants in the Accra HLF: meeting the targets and living up to
commitments will take a focused and determined effort.
A new agenda for action The
AAA was developed over months of extensive and inclusive consultation and
deliberation, and the final product embodies unparalleled consensus around
what is needed to improve aid effectiveness. Built on solid evidence, it lays the foundations for a reinforced
approach to achieving the MDGs by 2015. Through
the AAA, donors and developing countries have committed to taking –
immediately – a series of concrete steps to accelerate achievement of the
Paris Declaration commitments. They have agreed to focus on: ·
strengthening country leadership of development
programmes ·
investing in human resources and institutions ·
effective use of country systems ·
transparency about aid plans and aid use ·
establishing a new spirit of aid conditions ·
reducing aid fragmentation at all levels – and
thereby the associated management costs ·
further untying aid ·
increasing accountability for results, especially in terms
of gender equality, human rights and environmental sustainability Immediate
action on these objectives implies pushing the frontiers of best practice,
bringing new partners into the consensus, learning from others and changing
all stakeholders’ behaviour. Achieving this will require strong and
high-level political will. Governments
must allocate the human, financial, technological and natural resources
available to them in a way that will truly make a difference in people’s
lives. More than a matter of how many clinics are built, it is a question of
whether citizens’ health has improved; not how many schools are constructed,
but how many girls and boys are equipped to contribute meaningfully to
society. Providing these results can only happen if there is a real
commitment in word and deed. The
AAA is about changing the way the partners in aid do business, so as to
enable developing countries to make major advances toward their own
development goals – to promote growth and attract investment. Countries like
Ghana – on track to achieve middle-income country status by 2015 – are paving
the way. The AAA will help other countries to follow.
News in Brief: The HLF3 Roundtables Participants agreed on the need for a
systematic approach to capacity building, supported by demand-driven
technical co-operation involving South-South and triangular co-operation. On
the topic of conditionality, some participants argued that it limits
ownership; others felt, however, that linking important principles such as
gender equality, human rights and democracy to aid frameworks would promote
ownership. In any case, it was established that conditions must be mutually
agreed, they must be key to country policies, and they must be limited in
number. RT 2. Alignment: Use of country systems, untying aid, aid
predictability Panellists noted that applying the Paris
principle on alignment requires building a relationship of trust based on
mutually agreed principles and results. Noting the current lack of progress
in using country systems, despite a significant increase in the quality of
these systems, it was agreed that donors should make a real commitment to use
country systems when they are of a good quality. Partner countries, at the
same time, should continue their efforts to strengthen their national
systems. Making aid more predictable and aid modalities
were key elements of the discussion, which concluded that decisions on which
aid modalities are best suited to specific programmes should be taken jointly
by developing countries and donors. Moving forward on this agenda requires
not only technical commitments, but political ones as well. RT 3. Harmonisation: Rationalising aid delivery,
complementarity, division of labour The need to better manage division of
labour includes improving capacity for aid management among both donors and
developing countries, as well as having a political framework within which to
discuss and address division of labour. This is all the more significant with
the growing number of vertical funds and new non-DAC providers of development
assistance. The roundtable discussions also focused on
cross-cutting issues. There was general agreement that benchmarking and peer
review processes were needed to enable governments and donors to be
accountable for their commitments on these issues. These should be integrated
as goals in their own right within harmonisation efforts. Capacity to
undertake assessments on human rights, gender equality, and environmental
sustainability should be strengthened, including the development of relevant
statistical systems. RT
4. Managing for development results The roundtable discussions centered on the
failure to apply MfDR throughout country systems (planning, budgeting, reporting,
and auditing treated as discrete rather than linked MfDR exercises); the lack
of incentives for MfDR; and the lack of conceptual clarity and communication. Credible monitoring must not only be
independent and transparent but its findings (performance of both countries
and donor agencies) must also be reflected in budget allocations and
disbursements. Political will, conducive policy environments, champions and
change agents, capacity enhancement and South-South peer learning were viewed
as essential. RT
5. Mutual accountability Central to the discussion were the roles
and capacities of parliaments, civil society and the media as accountability
mechanisms, as well as the importance of independent reviews of mutual
accountability arrangements. Participants identified critical steps for
the future: strengthening the role of developing countries and recalibrating
the balance between them and donors; localizing aid policy; improving
government capacity; heightening the transparency and predictability of aid
flows; improving the quality of the data that inform development decisions;
and respecting and supporting local accountability structures, which already
exist in most countries but are too weak. RT 6.
The role of civil society in advancing aid effectiveness The roundtable’s three objectives were to: ·
consolidate
understanding and recognition of the roles that CSOs can play in development
and in advancing the aid effectiveness agenda ·
discuss action to
promote CSO effectiveness ·
develop a sense of
momentum around a forward agenda for multi-stakeholder dialogue and action Practical examples of CSO involvement were
discussed, as well as issues and obstacles (e.g. accountability, legitimacy, capacity). Solutions were
proposed to ensure that the contributions of CSOs to aid effectiveness
achieve their full potential. Future lines of work will include: ·
providing a more
enabling environment for CSOs, including appropriate models of donor support ·
enhancing capacity
development and strengthening civil society at the country level ·
strengthening
partnership among CSOs (North-South, South-South, global networks, national
umbrella organisations, etc.) ·
supporting for the
independent CSO process on CSO development effectiveness ·
preparing for CSO
engagement in the HLF4 and ensuring that a multi-stakeholder perspective on
CSO effectiveness is a major theme RT 7. Aid effectiveness in fragile states and conflict
situations Donors must adopt a flexible approach in
these situations, taking risks and grasping opportunities. They must
staff their field operations better and empower local decision-makers.
Priorities for action include the establishment of systematic monitoring of
progress, state building and peace building, with the serious engagement of
parliaments and civil society throughout. It was agreed that monitoring of the DAC
Principles should start immediately (with Afghanistan, CAR, DRC, Timor Leste
and Sierra Leone as volunteers). A process to agree on international objectives for state
building and peace building was launched, with support from the DAC
Secretariat and possibly the UN Peacebuilding Support Office. The examination
of financing issues for fragile situations, including in the early recovery
phase, will continue. And finally, to address the serious issue of coherence
among international actors (particularly among the "3 Ds", the development,
diplomacy and defense communities), the government of Switzerland will host a
meeting of senior officials in Geneva (March 2009). The need to act
fast, and to be committed and accountable was stressed. RT 8. Sectoral application of the Paris Declaration: Health,
education, environment, agriculture and infrastructure A sector-wide approach brings coherence,
weighs trade-offs, and takes into account cross-sectoral and macroeconomic
factors. It can be supported by different modalities, depending on the
situations and objectives. Yet pooling of resources and co-ordinating donor
requirements are critical to reduce transaction costs. Managing
complexity is the key challenge, because of the multiplicity of actors.
Country policies, structures, and systems need not be perfect – they need to
be good enough to be used, and can be strengthened through that use. RT 9. Implications of the new aid architecture for aid
effectiveness: South-South partners, vertical funds ·
More traditional
donors may leave certain sectors without sufficient funding. ·
Non-DAC donors may
assist in these sectors, but their aid can be tied, they may not engage in
donor coordination mechanisms, and they may use parallel systems, thereby
weakening partner country systems for managing the delivery of aid in the
future. There
was general agreement, however, that these diverse approaches can be
complementary. Flexibility,
diversity, and responsiveness were highlighted as desirable in delivering
aid. Developing countries must decide and manage new sources of financing to
meet their broad national development goals. They must also take the lead in
providing a common platform around which all donors can align their support. The opportunities and challenges of global
programmes and new initiatives were outlined. They present opportunities –
new and innovative financing mechanisms, mobilisation of long-term financing
that reduces predictability challenges, and untied aid. At the same time,
however, there are concerns regarding proliferation and fragmentation. The
need for mechanisms at the international level to monitor these initiatives
was discussed. At the same time, the experience of vertical funds can provide
good examples of making aid more predictable and responsive, using innovative
mechanisms that include private-public partnerships as well as the
implementation of activities through CSOs.
A selection of key publications tabled at Accra
Progress Report on Implementing the Paris Declaration. This report is intended to underpin the Accra Agenda for Action with evidence-based material. It covers inter alia the commitments under the five Partnership Principles related to ownership, harmonisation, alignment, results and mutual accountability.
Report on the Use of Country Systems in Public Financial Management. A robust public financial management system is vital to a country’s development efforts, as well as to the effectiveness of the aid funds that support those efforts. This report takes stock of the development community's achievements.
Effective Aid: Better Health.
Aid has made a significant
contribution to health gains achieved so far. This report argues that greater
adherence to the Paris Declaration would accelerate progress still further.
As such, health is a litmus test for broader aid effectiveness efforts. Reaching our Development
Goals: Why Does Aid Effectiveness Matter? This
booklet explains the reform effort embodied by the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness in its most accessible form ever. Evaluation of the Implementation of the Paris
Declaration: Synthesis
Report. This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of the Paris
Declaration, its contribution to aid effectiveness and ultimately to
development effectiveness. It considers qualitative aspects, building on -
and complementing - the quantitative information obtained through the
monitoring of the Paris Declaration. It also helps to answer questions such
as: how did it happen; why does it work or not work; and what are the
reasons?
Compendium of
Donor Reporting on Implementing the Paris Declaration Managing for
Development Results. Incentives for Aid Effectiveness in Donor Agencies: Good
Practice and Self-Assessment Tool. This
evaluation underlines the importance of appropriate incentives in influencing
managers and officials – and even more importantly political leaders – to
reform procedures and strengthen work by management and staff towards harmonisation,
alignment and results. Advisory Group
on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness: Synthesis of Findings and
Recommendations. This report
summarises the main findings and recommendations emerging from the analytical
work, multi-stakeholder consultations and case studies of the Advisory Group
on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness. Building a New
Aid Relationship. This publication
provides an overview of the goals of the Paris Declaration, its underlying
principles, the progress that developing countries and the donor community
have made together and the challenges that lie ahead. For more information on Accra, visit the HLF3 website. |
