Primer On Development And Aid Effectiveness

This Primer on Development and Aid Effectiveness is primarily meant to explain
the aid effectiveness agenda in the overall context of development issues and
concerns such as debt, debt cancellation, and increasing ODA for poverty
reduction and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The intention of
this primer is to address the perspectives and concerns of grassroots and
membership based civil society organizations (CSOs).

The issue of aid effectiveness has gained prominence in recent years especially
with the signing of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness at the Paris High
Level Forum II organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development on February 28 - March 2, 2005. The Paris Declaration is an
unprecedented achievement for the international donor community and the
partner governments, committing themselves to key principles for aid reform.
Since the aid effectiveness agenda is narrowly focused on aid management and
delivery, there is little knowledge of the issue among broader circles of the
development community and even more so among civil society organizations,
parliaments, media and the public in general. It is often not understood that the
aid effectiveness agenda actually addresses the crucial issues of reforming
relationships in development cooperation and aid which are as old as official
development aid itself.
The contentious issues of concessionary loans as a form of development
assistance, debt crises, tied aid and conditionality have rightly been prominent in
CSO advocacy as these address the most urgent issues related to development
and development finance. But these issues are rightly part of the aid
effectiveness agenda as they relate to aid relationships including the role and
responsibility of CSOs and other actors to ensure transparency and
accountability in ODA funded development concerns, as well as the overall
issue of democratic development.
Civil society organizations play an important role in development cooperation.
They are also important and distinctive contributors to aid effectiveness because
of their independence, their advocacy and watchdog roles, their close
connections to the poor or their effectiveness as channels for aid delivery.
CSOs have a crucial role to play in aid effectiveness especially in the area of
advocacy and monitoring. In most recipient countries to date there has been
little or no collaboration between governments and CSOs in trying to make aid
effective under the Paris Declaration. At the same time, there is a general
recognition that the Paris Declaration is a crucial component of a larger aid
effectiveness agenda that could engage civil society actors in a more direct
manner. On the other hand, CSOs also seek to further advance the issue of aid
reform beyond the Paris Declaration and deepen the aid effectiveness agenda to
cover such issues as conditionality, tied aid, and developing better accountability
mechanisms nationally and internationally.
As donors and governments work towards the implementation of the March
2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and review their achievements
at the High Level Forum III in September 2008 in Accra, Ghana, CSOs will
utilize all opportunities to advance their demands to deepen the aid effectiveness
agenda on one hand and strive for effective implementation of Paris Declaration
commitments by recognizing the proper role of civil society organizations in
development and achieving aid effectiveness reform.

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