Florence E. Etta
4 September 2008
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Early in September 2008 the world will hold another one of its mega gatherings in Accra Ghana - the third high level forum on aid effectiveness. World leaders will convene to append their priceless signatures to a document now popularly called the triple A, which stands for the Accra Agenda for Action. The triple A, an outcome document ostensibly from the three days of intense discussions and lobbying is actually a prepackaged condensation from evaluations of the implementation of the Paris declaration and consultations about them conducted between 2006 and 2008 in all the regions of the world. It includes promises to expand and include more of the actors/agents of development such as the civil society organisations (CSOs) who were sidelined in the earlier rendition of the Paris declaration. It charts the broad actions that will no doubt occupy many development actors between now and December 2011 when the fourth high level forum on aid effectiveness takes place.
This paper attempts to show how and why the text of the triple A had to be different from the Paris declaration. The custodians of the Paris declaration insistently make the point that the triple A does not overtake, override nor overwrite the Paris declaration. The former only reasserts the latter.
BACKGROUND
For over three decades assertive programming in human rights, social justice and in particular women's rights have generated and expanded the literature and instruments, created a number of global and local institutions and, above all, popularised the notion and language of (universal and attainable) human rights. The investments have been massive and in many instances the gains have been significant. But the results cannot be said to be equivalent to the value of investments.
Despite being on the international development agenda as a programmatic commitment for over 30 years and with a good number of multilateral, bilateral and private development institutions in addition to many international non governmental organisations pursuing the cause, gender equality and women's empowerment has still not been fully achieved in most parts of the world as in Africa. This is despite the multiplicity of signed, ratified and even domesticated legal instruments designed to protect (and assure) these rights. It would seem that development aid has failed women and the cause for gender equality. Clearly a paradigm shift is required to assure aid effectiveness. Has this come in the form of the Paris declaration?
The global aid architecture has undergone significant changes since the turn of the century. Spurred by development failures in many developing nations, rising donor disenchantment with the reach, depth and sustainability of NGOs (non governmental organisations) led and inspired transformation coupled with their generally weak governance, many donors renewed their commitment to working directly with and through developing country governments. On the other hand, calls for good governance and participation in public policymaking were growing louder and louder. Beginning with the Millennium Declaration in 2000, which gave birth to the contemporary global development framework - the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), a number of significant high level meetings led to the charting and adoption of a number of landmark declarations. The Monterrey consensus in 2002 together with the Marrakech roundtable in 2004 led to the crystallisation and juxtaposition of the notions of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, and managing for results in relation to aid effectiveness. In March 2005 a declaration was signed in Paris now popularly called the Paris declaration, which has become the lighthouse document for aid effectiveness currently shaping the contours, architecture and discourses of global aid. The Paris declaration consolidated commitment among a sizeable number of donors and their development partner countries and actors to implement changes in the planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of aid.
Major reviews of the Paris declaration suggest that the narrow focus of the Paris declaration on efficiency and structural reforms of aid delivery mechanisms has limited positive impact on development or aid effectiveness in general and gender equality in particular.
AID EFFECTIVENESS
The European network on debt and development suggests that aid is effective if it is helping to tackle global inequality and poverty. The advisory group on civil society and aid effectiveness states in a concept paper of 2007 that 'Aid effectiveness means the extent to which aid resources succeed in producing sustainable development results for poor people'. According to the advisory group on civil society, aid effectiveness is important because it:
- draws attention to the big picture, to ensure that the ultimate objectives of the aid system as a whole are being met;
- can help to ensure that the international aid system remains true to its primary purpose in the face of competing interests of a political or bureaucratic nature, institutional imperatives, foreign policy goals, or commercial objectives;
- provides a framework for enquiring into broad lessons of good practice and establishing a consensus on how aid could be improved', (Paragraph 46).
From a gender equality perspective aid would be considered to be effective if it reaches and sustainably transforms the lives of poor women and men, if women and men equally contribute to and benefit from the investments and from the fruits of development. Aid is thus said to be effective if it delivers on development, reduces poverty, brings about gender equality, the advancement of women and the protection of their human rights and national growth.
THE PARIS DECLARATION
The Paris declaration is currently the guiding framework for aid effectiveness. This three year old declaration with targets for the year 2010 is shaping the contours, architecture and discourses of global aid. As the lighthouse document for aid effectiveness, it has been described by the organisation for economic cooperation and development (OECD, 2007) as:
'An ambitious attempt to increase the impact of aid on development by promoting more mature partnerships between donors and partner countries. It also seeks to enhance partner countries' ability to manage all development resources more effectively; and enable their citizens, and parliaments, to hold governments accountable on its use. As well as committing all parties to the Declaration to a clearly specified set of actions and behavioural changes, it also calls for periodic monitoring at the country level, so that the governments of developing countries and their external partners are increasingly accountable to each other for the progress being made' (OECD, 2007,Chap 3).
The Paris declaration is laid out in three sections namely the statement of resolve, partnership commitments and indicators of progress. Much of the discussions and contentions to date have revolved around the five principles that underlie the partnership commitments: ownership, alignment harmonisation, managing for results, and mutual accountability.
The statement of resolve highlights the raison d'être of the declaration as the scaling up of aid, identifying the management and implementation processes of the new approach, including the adaptability to differing country situations, the specification of targets and their timelines. It also suggests a monitoring and evaluation schema. Two monitoring and evaluation exercises have been conducted to date in 2006 and 2008.
The second section, of the Paris declaration contains 50 partnership commitments in relation to the five principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results, and mutual accountability. The commitments are partner specific so that the responsibilities are clear.
The third and final section of the Paris declaration is the table of 12 indicators and targets to be achieved by the year 2010. Each of the five principles has one or a set of measurable indicators: ownership has one indicator, alignment has seven indicators, harmonisation two indicators, managing for results one indicator and mutual accountability also has one indicator. It has been suggested, on account of the heavy emphasis on the principle of alignment, as shown by the number of indicators attached to it, that the Paris declaration is principally an instrument to improve the efficiency of aid not necessarily its effectiveness.
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