Njeri Rugene
5 September 2008
Accra, Ghana — Four Kenyan NGOs and a local bishop are among more than 100 civil society organisations that are urging participants of the aid effectiveness conference here to reject foreign aid with imposed conditions.
The groups are also demanding cancellation of debts saying it would be a major requisite to "aid effectiveness."
The civil society groups which concluded a two day parallel meeting ahead of the high level forum on aid effectiveness and management want community organisations, NGOs, and trade unions to be involved in negotiations on foreign aid as well as in formulating the national development strategy.
Unequal power
EcoNews Africa, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Kenya Debt Relief Network, Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Centre and Bishop Robert Mutemi Mutua were among groups and individuals lobbying against donor conditions saying any aid with such issues should be rejected.
"Aid giving is not only exercised in the context of unequal power relations, it is also being used as an instrument of power...and conditionalities are the most blatant expression of this fact," the organisations said in a statement.
They argued that donor conditions had undermined the sovereignty of recipient countries and their people while violating the principle of democratic governance.
"There has been well documented evidence of harmful impacts of many policy conditionalities and the grossly unfair and disadvantageous nature of other types of conditions."
The said "harmful" conditions, according to the groups which included those from Europe, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Caribbean and Africa, had destroyed agriculture in the countries involved, resulting in the current food crisis.
Meanwhile, UK and the World Bank proposed an initiative to make delivery and management of aid more open.
Dubbed the International Aid Transparency Initiative, the move would improve openness in aid delivery and increased 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 UK's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander asked all donors to agree to a set of common standards "against which they could be judged."
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