At a Glance The aid effectiveness agenda is at the core of all development assistance, encompassing many of the key issues facing aid delivery, from the predictability of aid flows to the use of country systems and managing for development results. Today, when governments face financial uncertainty and challenges such as the threat of climate change, it is more important than ever that aid be channeled to produce sustainable results. The international aid effectiveness agenda brings together development stakeholders, donor governments, multilateral donors, recipient country governments, civil society organizations, global programs, and many others, to focus on the development goals identified by partner countries. In this complex aid architecture all development practitioners must coordinate in aligning with each country’s own priorities. Progress to Date During the past decade the World Bank has played a leading role in several high-level international meetings that have shaped the aid effectiveness agenda: Monterrey (2002), the International Roundtables on Results at Marrakech (2004) and Hanoi (2007), and the High Level Forums on Aid Effectiveness in Rome (2003), Paris (2005), and Accra (2008). These international meetings and the declarations that came from them have had a significant impact on the development community as a whole, helping to frame the debate and build consensus on ways to improve aid delivery and management. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness established five principles for improved aid effectiveness: ownership, harmonization, alignment, managing for results, and mutual accountability. Progress on these principles has been measured through 12 indicators in two monitoring rounds coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) in 2006 and 2008 (a third round is due in 2011). In the OECD-DAC survey, the Bank performed above donor averages for all indicators that seek to measure donor performance, scoring especially well with regard to avoiding parallel implementation units and delivering untied aid. Areas where the Bank is working to improve performance include aid predictability and use of country systems. To complement the Paris Survey data, the Bank has elicited qualitative information from its country offices, and has used this feedback to shape its future aid effectiveness strategy. World Bank’s Role Going Forward Today, nearly all countries have national development strategies, and donors are increasingly aligning their support with those strategies. Donors and recipient countries have done much to improve their accountability for the use and results of aid, as both sides recognize their roles in implementing the aid effectiveness agenda. As part of this broader movement, the Bank has drawn on the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to put in place an Aid Effectiveness Action Plan that outlines its priorities for this agenda: · Strengthening country ownership, including using the country’s public financial management, procurement, and safeguard systems; and focusing on capacity development within countries, both by investing in human capital and building stronger institutions. · Continuing to effectively engage in fragile and post-conflict situations, including by collaborating with the United Nations and European Community on post-crisis assessments and recovery planning, and by reviewing the Bank’s experience with implementing its rapid response policy. · Working with nontraditional development partners at the global, regional, and country level, focusing in particular on partners that are not currently part of the OECD- DAC, and facilitating South-South learning partnerships. · Continuing efforts to improve transparency of aid; for example, through increased aid predictability, and strengthening management for development results at the country, sector, and corporate levels. To support this work, the Bank continues working to improve the way it conducts business: furthering decentralization to better meet client needs, modernizing policies and simplifying procedures, and fostering closer partnerships with international and bilateral development partners. As the international community moves from isolated areas of good practices to mainstreaming aid effectiveness, the Bank will focus on gathering and disseminating the rich experience of staff, donors, and partner countries to increase traction for the aid effectiveness agenda at the country level. This work is closely related to other corporate initiatives: investment lending reform, disclosure policy revision, governance and anticorruption work, and the results agenda. As part of its international engagement on aid effectiveness, the Bank serves as co-vice-chair of the Executive Committee of the OECD-DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and provides substantial input to the Working Party in such areas as aid predictability, development policy lending, assessing progress on the Paris Declaration and AAA commitments, managing for results, public financial management, procurement, South-South cooperation, and fragile states. During the next two years this work will be central to preparations for the Fourth High Level Forum, scheduled to take place in Seoul, Korea, in 2011. Media Contact: Geetanjali Chopra, (202) 473-0243, Gchopra@worldbank.org Updated September 2009 |
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