The Courier

Landscape view in Madagascar.

© EC

The 2005 Paris Declaration saw Ministers from developed and developing countries arrive at an “unprecedented global consensus” to take far-reaching and tangible actions to improve the delivery and management of development aid. This resolve was made within the context of the MDG targets established under the UN Millennium Declaration, and also in reference to the 2002 Monterrey Consensus on the progressive scaling-up of ODA to 0.7 per cent of donors’ GNI by 2015.

The Paris Declaration stresses five main principles: ownership, alignment, harmonization, results, and mutual accountability. Twelve progress indicators have also been identified with specific targets to be realized by 2010. Assessment of post-Paris Declaration aid delivery and impact shows that the reality is far from encouraging.  For that reason, the Accra Third-High Level Forum is timely.  

Understandably, discussion on aid effectiveness is futile in the absence of increased aid volume. Current predictions indicate that there will soon be shortfalls in the size of ODA, which will impact mainly poor and fragile states*. This potential development threatens to undermine the Monterrey Consensus and jeopardize the achievement of the MDGs. The EU, which recorded a drop in aid contribution for 2007, has indicated that it will step up its efforts to ensure that contributions are on target to double its ODA by 2010, as well as to meet 2015 commitments.  On behalf of the ACP Group, I thank the EU for its efforts. 

Nonetheless, more immediate steps need to be taken by donor and recipient countries to rekindle the enthusiasm that led to the Paris Declaration. Ownership is an important issue: recipient countries must have the latitude to feel that they are at least part-owners of the aid delivery process. The Paris Declaration provides for measurements of ownership to be aligned with a country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.  A study sponsored by the Joint Parliamentary Assembly revealed that this process limits opportunities to enhance ownership**.

The question is who knows best the problems of a country requiring aid. Government agencies and members of the civil society very often are more knowledgeable about problems than donor agencies. However, to ensure accountability, donor agencies tend to become more involved in the process. The ACP Group, the biggest bloc of aid-recipient countries, is of the opinion that ownership can be improved through informed dialogue. 

Another concern for the ACP Group is ‘aid predictability’. Delays in delivery create problems for governments in the recipient countries. The EU’s introduction of MDG contracts is a step in the right direction to address this problem. Another concern is the need to improve policy coherence across sectors that are of great significance to developing countries, such as agriculture, trade, investment and migration. This requires policy alignment by donors and recipients to ensure that efforts to increase aid effectiveness in one area do not create an obstacle in another area.

Indeed, issues such as aid-absorption capacity are practical limitations for recipient states, and cannot be ignored by the relevant stakeholders. Those were the reasons underlying the Paris Declaration. Recipient countries, at both the bilateral and multilateral levels, should do more to sensitize donors--including new players such as China, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela--to join in and support important commitments such as those expressed in the Monterrey and Paris conferences. Only in this way can we get back on track to significantly reduce poverty and achieve the MDGs.

* World Bank, Global Monitoring Report 2008: MDGs and the Environment; Washington DC, p. XIX.

** ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade, 03.03.2008, [DT\704928EN & APP 100.249].