Concord Times (Freetown)
Tanu Jalloh
31 March 2008
Freetown — A report based on case studies carried out in Sierra Leone Niger, Mali, Mozambique, Honduras, Nicaragua and Cambodia indicates that 2008 would be a critical year for evaluating how aid is helping to tackle global poverty and inequality.
Eurodad, a 54-member European network on debt and development from 17 countries working on issues related to debt, development finance and poverty reduction has recently highlighted current successes and failures by European donors, and set out recommendations for changing practices.
The report states that "heavy bureaucratic procedures by the European Commission continue to hamper its aid, and make its payments very unpredictable; France has been financing its aid to Mozambique by recycling its debt service; Spanish debt relief to Honduras is boomeranging back to benefit Spanish companies and organisations; the World Bank is still using its aid to try and force controversial economic reforms in Mali," it stated.
Christian Lawrence, Campaign for Good Governance in Freetown observed that: "It is very hard for us to see what aid is coming into our country." He added, "Donors are not transparent enough about their aid and do not account to citizens in developing countries. Without good information about the money coming in, we cannot scrutinise whether it is being well spent".
The Eurodad report launched on Friday 28, "Turning the Tables: Aid and accountability under the Paris framework" shows that the world's rich countries have only made patchy progress in making aid more effective for helping the poor, despite high-profile commitments to reform aid.
The report, by Eurodad in collaboration with nine other African and European NGOs, showcases fresh evidence from 7 developing countries. It reveals that some development agencies have introduced new policies and procedures, but many are slow to change.
"It is time to review the commitments that 61 rich countries and multilateral agencies signed up to in Paris three years ago. This agreement was a step in the right direction, but donors still have a long way to go to implement their pledges for a more effective, transparent and accountable aid system, the report pointed out.
Lucy Hayes from Eurodad argued that, "Aid is still too often dominated by rich country agendas and spent on their consultants. When those programmes fail to produce results, nobody is held accountable." She added: "Donors such as the European Commission and European governments must deliver on their aid commitments. They have the power and the major responsibility to take the first steps to making their aid money work better for poor people".
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