[APWW-Meet] Donors And The Poor Agree Aid Agenda

[Roberto Savio <soros@other-net.info>]

Welcome to the APWW-Meet
An announcement list of the Asia Pacific Women Watch network
working for the advancement of the status of women.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


//Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited,
article sent for information purposes.//

Donors And The Poor Agree Aid Agenda
 =20
=20
By Francis Kokutse and IPS correspondents



ACCRA, Sep 5 (IPS) - Delegates from both developing and developed
countries have adopted the Accra Agenda For Action (AAA) as a guide to
improve the way aid is given and spent.

The document was adopted at the close of a three-day High Level Forum on
Aid Effectiveness which drew over 1,200 delegates from about 120 to the
Ghanaian capital.=20

Under the AAA, developing countries committed to control their own
futures, and donors to better policy and delivery coordination among
themselves.=20

After some hard negotiations, both sides also pledge to make themselves
accountable to each other and their citizens.=20

Although there were reports that the talks pitted developing countries,
backed by the European Union, against leading donor nations the US and
Japan, a senior U.S. spokesman played down the suggestion.=20

"A number of groups were very involved in the discussions and in putting
forward inputs and ideas. Everyone was pitching in and working
together," said Henrietta H. Fore, Director of Foreign Assistance in the
State Department and USAID Administrator.=20

"We wanted to reflect the urgency, but we also wanted to be realistic.
We wanted to set targets that we could meet," she told IPS.=20

Other US officials pointed to what they called "cultural differences"
between the U.S. and Europe -- where European countries tended to set
"aspiration targets" by setting the bar high, the U.S. favoured
realistic, achievable targets.=20

"The U.S. is very target-oriented, very results-oriented," said a U.S.
official attached to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), the grouping of the worlds leading donors that had
called the Forum along with the World Bank.=20

The Accra Agenda states that governments in the developing world will
take stronger leadership of their own development polices and engage
with their parliaments and citizens in shaping those policies.=20

"Donors will support them by respecting countries priorities, investing
in their human resources and institutions, making greater use of their
systems to deliver aid, and increasing the predictability of aid flaws,"
it adds.=20

In addition, they agreed that "achieving development results and openly
accounting for them must be at the heart of we do."=20

Since citizens and taxpayers of all countries expect to see the tangible
results of developments, the gathered leaders promised to "demonstrate
that our actions translate into positive impacts on peoples lives."=20

"We will be accountable to each other and to our respective parliaments
and governing bodies for these outcomes."=20

"Without addressing these obstacles to faster progress, we will fall
short of our commitments and miss opportunities to improve the
livelihoods of the most vulnerable people in the world," they added.=20

The Agenda also agreed to deepen engagement with civil society
organisations as independent development actors in their own right, as
organisations whose efforts complement those of governments and the
private sector.=20

Civil groups present at the Forum however criticized the final outcome
saying it was a weak agreement characterised more by words than action.=20

"Even last-minute efforts by developing country ministers and their
allies only ensured some marginal improvements. This aid forum was
organised by the OECD, a rich-country donor club," said Rose
Mensah-Kutin, executive director of NETRIGHT Ghana.=20

"In a year when more than one hundred million people have been pushed
into poverty by rising food prices, it is scandalous that donor
governments have refused to remove damaging restrictions that increase
the cost of food aid," she added.=20

"Donors have failed to agree to reduce harmful policy conditions that
undermine democratic processes and constrain country choices," said Tony
Tujan of Reality of Aid, an umbrella group,=20

"Despite efforts by recipient countries, donors continue to impose their
own structures, by-passing domestic processes. Donor are failing to meet
their side of the bargain."=20

Ngonzi Okojo-Iweala, Ghana's minister for finance said, "the Agenda has
advanced the course of what we have been talking about. It has set
targets and indicators to improve upon aid." (END/2008) =20




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The APWW-Meet is a moderated list hosted by Isis International-Manila for
the APWW network. To unsubscribe, send an email to majordomo@isiswomen.org
and put the line "unsubscribe apww-meet" in the message body. To post
messages, send to apww-meet@isiswomen.org. For inquiries, send to
owner-apww-meet@isiswomen.org.