Njeri Rugene
5 September 2008
Accra — Britain and the World Bank have launched an initiative to make delivery and management of aid more open and accountable.
Dubbed the International Aid Transparency Initiative, the move would improve openness in the aid delivery system to recipient countries and increase scrutiny over how it is used, according to the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).
"The initiative backed by the World Bank ,and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as well as the Hewlett Foundation would "allow governments of poor countries to plan more effectively by guaranteeing when aid would be delivered to them," said the initiators.
Announcing plans for the initiative Britain's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander asked all donors to agree to a set of common standards "against which they could be judged."
The UK he said, believed that donors needed to agree to give full and detailed information on all aid in recipient countries as well as details and costs of projects and their aims.
They should also agree to give reliable information on future aid to improve planning by recipient governments.
He said, at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, that the move was an important step to increase certainty for both donors and recipient countries.
The Accra meeting aims at refocusing attention on the need to meet Millennium Development Goals to reduce global poverty.
"The impact of aid in relieving poverty can greatly be increased if everyone can see where the money's coming from, who is spending it and what it should be achieving," said Mr Douglas.
Rwanda's Finance Minister James Musconi was among those present during the launch at the Accra Conference Centre.
Mr Alexander expressed hope that the new initiative would be 'a crucial tool" in the fight against misuse of aid "if local people can see where aid should be going and question whether it has been effective and the scope for corruption is greatly reduced."
The civil society has been very outspoken here and critical of donors over failure to deliver aid on time which they say has hampered developmental work and efforts to reduce poverty.
This has forced recipient countries to increase their debts to cover shortfalls.
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