Six months after the September 2008 Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, the latest issue of the World Bank Institute’s magazine, Development Outreach posed the question, “Will Aid Become Effective Now?”
A panel of experts who contributed to the magazine debated the question at World Bank headquarters March 16, highlighting key points raised in their articles.
The discussion and Q+A moved swiftly across topics such as ownership, donor harmonization, aid reform and innovation, new partnerships such as South-South cooperation, non-traditional and private donors, corruption, and selectivity.
Podcast: Is Aid More Effective Six Months After Accra?
April 4, 2009 — “Will Aid Become Effective Now?” A panel of experts debated this question last week, six months after the last global meeting on making aid work better—the September 2008 Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana.
“The Accra Agenda for Action is bold and ambitious,” said Barbara Lee, manager of the Aid Effectiveness Unit in OPCS, who moderated the panel. “Its core issue is how to improve the delivery and use of development assistance to make the greatest difference in the lives of the poor. Six months after Accra, it is time to start looking at how we are doing.”
The Development Outreach issue tracks follow-up progress on the Accra commitments from multiple perspectives, including that of a developing country, namely Rwanda, as well as donors, including Germany, the US, Brazil, and the World Bank. It also provides an overview from the chairman of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, as well as articles on capacity development, aid and governance, human rights (from a civil society point of view), and the efficacy of multi-donor trust funds.
The panel discussion moved swiftly across these topics and others such as ownership, donor harmonization, aid reform and innovation, new partnerships such as South-South cooperation, non-traditional and private donors, corruption, and selectivity.
Sheila Herrling, senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development(left), andBarbara Lee, manager of the Aid Effectiveness Unit, OPCS
Elusive Ownership and Harmonization
Hans Dembowski, editor of the German aid agency magazine D+C Development and Cooperation, highlighted the challenge of achieving developing-country ownership of aid programs when ministers in donor countries also insist on such ownership, to deliver accountability to taxpayers. Although progress has been made on harmonization of development programs among European donors, he noted that this remains ownership by donors rather than by developing countries.
“Countries really want into this program,” she countered. “They see it as a seal of approval of good governance.” While it has enabled some countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali to gain access to significant poverty-focused US aid flows for the first time, she said, the MCA remains plagued by slow disbursement, making it “too early” to assess its effectiveness. Moreover, she added, its future role remains unclear, as the new US administration has not yet articulated its development aid agenda, nor made significant appointments for its leadership.
Mark Nelson, senior operations officer at the World Bank Institute
A Reboot for Capacity Building
Of the capacity-building challenge, Mark Nelson, senior operations officer in WBI’s Global Programs Unit, said there is a clear shift in developing-country demand away from “training and technical assistance” to policy reform and leadership.
“The equation is changing,” he said. “Civil society is demanding a seat at the table, and South-South networking is what countries want.” He added that the OECD donors need to respond to these new demands from their partners, while developing countries need to show more openness to working with civil society, rather than dismissing CSOs as opposition movements in disguise.
“Aid Industry behind the Curve”
A snapshot from the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Accra, Ghana, September 2008
Daniel Kaufmann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, brought a critical perspective on governance to the discussion. He noted that the Accra Agenda “goes backwards on governance and anti-corruption,” and charged that the traditional aid industry is “behind the curve” on such innovations as information technology and its potential for scaling up the impact of development programs, freedom of media, including the voices of civil society, and public-private partnerships.
The global financial crisis “puts us exponentially behind the curve unless we act,” he warned. It offers an opportunity to implement needed reforms in the roles of the state and private sector, as both will need to collaborate to make investments in infrastructure and regulatory reform to pull economies out of crisis.
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