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Division of labour among aid donors
called for
Accra, Aug. 28, Ghanadot/GNA – Ahead of the Aid
Effectiveness conference in Accra next week, civil society
organisation (CSOs) are advocating for division of labour
among donor countries and organisations in the application
of donor funding in less developed countries (LDCs).
This, they said, would ensure fair distribution of donor
funding in LDCs and address the problem of poverty and
inequality reduction, capacity building and accelerate the
achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in a
more expeditious manner.
Mr. Sylvian A. Browa, Director of the US-based Global
Partnership, made the call at a preparatory workshop for the
media on Aid Effectiveness in connection with the
forthcoming Accra Conference slated for September 2–4, 2008.
The three-day conference would review and assess progress in
the implementation of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness.
More than 1,000 delegates worldwide are to attend the
conference, which would also agree on a new agenda for
action, dubbed, Accra Agenda for Action (AAA).
The conference would provide the foremost platform for
donors, recipient countries and civil society organizations
to review the progress on the Paris Declaration on the basis
of its five core principles of ownership, alignment,
harmonization, managing for results and mutual
accountability.
Mr Browa noted that some donor countries and organisations
had adopted pet sectors such as health and education in
developing countries to the detriment of other sectors.
He said even in the adopted pet sectors, aid had focus on
specific areas to the detriment of other aspects of those
sectors.
“At the Accra conference, we will be seeking to have some
division of labour among donor countries and organisations
to ensure that donor funds are fairly spread to benefit all
the sectors needing aid,” he said.
Mr. Browa noted that till date, the five principles of the
Paris Declarations remained mere rhetoric partly due to fact
that internal political mechanisms in donor countries also
hindered their governments leaving the management of donor
funds in the hands of LDCs as required by the Paris
Declaration.
Ms. Lucy Hayes, Policy and Advocacy Officer for Aid and
Poverty at European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD),
noted that donor countries usually cited corruption and
mismanagement of funds by some government officials of
recipient countries (LDCs) as a reason for keeping ties and
conditions on aid money.
“Corruption and poor governance in recipient countries is a
concern but not an excuse for donor countries to put
unfavourable conditions on aid money,” she said.
She noted that even in the donor countries, corruption and
financial mismanagement by government officials manifested
in various forms and yet those governments continued to
receive the mandate of their citizens to manage their
resources.
“In Ireland where I come from some government officials were
recently caught up in huge corruption scandals but that does
not warrant a vote of no confidence in the whole government
in the governance system,” she said.
Ms Hayes said in Europe for instance, there was not much
change in the practice in terms of the factors that informed
decisions on how to effectively implement aid funded
projects.
Ms Hayes said there was no law binding European countries to
look for experts and other personnel from Ghana.
“At the Accra Conference we will be seeking more untied aid
and less conditionalities to ensure we evolve with Accra
Agenda for Action and not Inaction,” she said.
Mr. Peter Fiamor, Senior Research Officer at Institute for
Democratic Governance (IDEG), said much as donors required
good governance from recipient countries, they also had the
obligation to pay attention to the development aspirations
of those countries.
He noted that in Ghana for instance, the current development
plan, GPRS II, was developed through a participatory
democratic process, saying CSOs were also involved at the
sub-sector level in putting together even the annual budget,
30 per cent of which came from donor funding.
“We have also passed the procurement law, equity tender
board put in place and a proper public finance
administration system to engender donor confidence,” he
said.
The panellists at the workshop agreed that donors concerns
about transparency in the implementation of donor funds was
justified and therefore called on recipient countries to
ensure that.
GNA
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