The third high level forum (HLF-3) convened in Ghana this week to discuss aid effectiveness. Aid agencies that attended the forum said donors have not made enough progress since the 2005 Paris Declaration in dealing with long-time problems related to aid effectiveness. During the forum, Ghanaian president, John Kufuor, called on developing and developed countries to deploy and manage development assistance so that poor countries can cease being aid dependent. He further urged stakeholders to come up with ‘ambitious resolutions, to minimise existing impediments to aid effectiveness in recipient countries’.
Civil society organisations note that ‘with all the attention given to High Level Forums on aid effectiveness, it is easy to lose sight of the simple fact that after all aid effectiveness is not about the effectiveness with which aid is delivered, managed, aligned or harmonised such as how much comes through budget support versus project funding; but the positive impact it makes on the lives of the people at the grassroots such as those of Accra’s Sodom and Gomorrah and South Africa’s Free State which at best remains subtle’. In addition, participants of the HLF-3 discussed the aid effectiveness in situations of fragile and conflict states, suggesting that donors, in order to have greater risk-bearing capacity, should channel funds through the budgets of recipient countries.
An analyst suggests that donors should collectively ‘set an upper limit on the amount of aid they give to any developing country’. According to the author, ‘there are various reasons to be concerned about high aid dependence, but the most worrying is the undermining of good governance by distortion of political accountability. Governments that are highly dependent on aid pay too much attention to donors and too little to their citizens.’ The ‘Accra Action Agenda to Improve the Efficiency of Development Business’ was adopted at the closing of the HLF-3. The key terms of the Accra Action Agenda are predictability, country systems, conditionality and untying of aid. Some participants were relieved that civil society views were represented in the agreements, though other civil society representatives expressed concern donors would not adhere their new commitments and that attempts were made to block partner countries’ demands during the negotiations.
Still in development related news, the African Union (AU) and the African Development Bank are jointly organising the sixth African development forum that will be convened on the theme ‘Action on gender equality, empowerment and ending violence against women in Africa’ as one of the principal events to mark the 50th anniversary of the Economic Commission for Africa. Moreover, the commissions of the AU and the European Union (EU) are organising a forum on ‘Media and Development’ for academics and professional journalists. The AU and EU, by bringing professional journalists together with civil society representatives and political decision-makers, aim to show that Africa and Europe are seeking common solutions to the problems that confront them in the 21st century. Elsewhere, a conference on the development of renewable energy in Africa and the cooperation between Iceland and African states on the construction of a 50 megawatt geothermal energy plant, known as the Djibouti project, opened at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. Further, a high level discussion between the AU and the European Commission on the implementation of the Africa - EU energy partnership also opened on Monday at AU headquarters.
This week marks Africa week at the European Parliament, at which, a joint meeting of members of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and members of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific-EU joint-parliamentary assembly will be convened. Major issues concerning Africa such as food crisis and immigration will be discussed. The current food crisis in Africa has led experts to consider the possibility of the World Food Programme making cash distributions in West Africa which would allow more flexibility in distribution of aid.
In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe’s party has rejected calls by the AU to share executive power equally with his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai. The AU chair wanted to see a 50-50 power sharing deal agreed for Zimbabwe to end a devastating political and economic crisis. In Angola, the Pan-African Parliament sent a mission to observe the legislative elections that were held on 5 September.
In other news, the AU has finally launched the first permanent general assembly of its Economic, Social and Cultural Council. Further, African health ministers have joined the ‘first global patient safety campaign’ by signing on to the World Health Organisation’s global campaign. Lastly, the AU commission chairperson, Jean Ping, was awarded the honour of the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in recognition of his achievements in the international arena.
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