Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Aid Conference: For a more effective development aid

The Commission calls on donor and developing countries to use development aid more effectivelyAt the eve of the High Level Ministerial Meeting in Accra/Ghana (2 – 4 September), the Commission urges governments to commit themselves to concrete and ambitious actions. Three years after the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, some progress have been made. Yet much more needs to be done to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

The aim of making development aid more effective is twofold:

- To ensure that aid really has an impact on lives of billions of people in poverty
- To show to European taxpayers that their money is worth spending and is delivering the results it should.

At the international aid conference, the EU proposes that action should focus on four different areas :

- Division of Labour: Donors should work together, coordinate their programmes, set a joint agenda and decide together. In this way, we will avoid that a multitude of donors are active in one sector or country, while others are neglected. Similarly, the situation of aid "orphans" where countries are forgotten about in favour of aid "darlings" where donors are queuing up must be rectified. Improved division of labour will also simplify administration for developing countries – as they normally have to comply to many different donor procedures
- Predictability of aid: To help developing countries planning their own development strategies, donors should also plan their aid flows for a period of at least three years. If they are to carry out important infrastructure projects or structural reform processes they need to be able to rely; to secure a big infrastructure or reform process
- Country systems: Rather than imposing on developing countries projects and development strategies, donors should help governments to develop their own priorities. This could be done e.g. by contributing financially to the national budget
- Going for results: Rather than imposing many different conditions before granting the aid, donors should focus on the results to be agreed with the partner countries.

Source Press-room - European Commission

More information Press-room - European Commission

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