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Aid Effectiveness Network news - Newsletter - April 2007
Highlights
Aid Relationships
Results
Work is progressing on agreeing the future workplan of the OECD-DAC Joint Venture on Managing for Development Results following the Roundtable in Hanoi in February. DFID is planning to make a significant contribution to its implementation. For more information please contact Charles Clift c-clift@dfid.gov.uk.
Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption
The Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption Team (FACT) in Global
Development Effectiveness Division (GDED) recently hosted an informal meeting on
donor approaches to managing fiduciary risk in London. Eleven agencies
participated in the meeting, including the World Bank, the European Commission
and key bilateral donors. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the scope
for improving donor coordination and harmonisation in fiduciary risk
assessments, share information and exchange views on donor approaches to using
the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) framework for this
purpose. The meeting confirmed donor support to the strengthened approach to PFM
reform embedded in the three pillars of the PEFA framework. It also identified
scope for improving donor coordination and harmonisation in PFM diagnostic work,
as part of our commitments to the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness. The
conclusions of the meeting will be taken forward in the next meeting of the
Steering Committee of the PEFA initiative and the
OECD DAC Joint Venture on
Public Financial Management. For further information, please contact Carlos Santiso c-santiso@dfid.gov.uk.
In collaboration with the PEFA Secretariat and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), FACT recently organised a training course on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Framework for sector specialists and donor staff in London. This was the first such “European hub” training event with over 50 specialists from 10 donor agencies participating. The aims of the course were to roll-out the strengthened approach to PFM reform, to improve the quality of PEFA assessments and to promote donor coordination and harmonisation. The course was divided into two sessions. The first two-day session was aimed at PFM specialists carrying out PEFA assessments. The second one-day session was aimed at donor staff supporting the PEFA process, including preparation, coordination, quality assurance and control, and dissemination. For further information, please contact Carlos Santiso c-santiso@dfid.gov.uk.
During that meeting, a team of consultants from the London School of Economics (LSE) presented a draft issues paper on donor support to parliamentary engagement in the budget process. The aim of this analytical and advisory work commissioned by FACT is to assess how we can scale-up support to parliamentary checks and balances in public financial management, encourage demand for good financial governance, and strengthen financial accountability, in particular in the context of budget support. The draft issues paper is available for comment. Along with a policy brief, it should be completed by the end of April and feed into a How-to-Note. Please contact Carlos Santiso c-santiso@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
The FACT team are also working with others to improve donor coordination and effectiveness in parliamentary strengthening work, especially around the budget process. Together with UNDP, the WBI and Belgium, they are organising a donor consultative meeting on parliamentary strengthening and financial accountability in Brussels on 21-22 May 2007. For further information, please contact Carlos Santiso c-santiso@dfid.gov.uk.
Other Aid Effectiveness information
On 4th April, Suma Chakrabarti led the discussion in the Development Assistance Committee
(DAC) endorsing the
DAC principles for
Good International Engagements in Fragile States and
Situations
. He said we need to get the incentives right to tackle the issue of
"aid orphans" and we need new results frameworks that can show progress in areas
such as state-building and peacekeeping. He encouraged all convenors of donor
groups to lead discussions on what the principles meant for local collective
donor action. For more information please
contact Catherine Masterman
C-Masterman@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
European Commission proposals for a Code of Conduct on Division of Labour -
following up on the Council Conclusions of last November, the EU is attempting
to set the pace for other donors on improving Aid Effectiveness, by building on
the commitments in the Paris Declaration on complementarity or the division of
labour between donors, with specific principles and targets. The Code is an
aspirational and political statement. It is designed to set best practice, and
to be an input into the Ghana High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. It
represents an important initiative to create a more effective donor community,
and more effective relations between developing countries and donors. For more
information please contact Sue Bassett (DPP Team)
S-Bassett@dfid.gov.uk or Rob Rudy (EUD)
r-rudy@dfid.gov.uk.
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In March, the Evaluation Department published nine new papers stemming from the Joint Evaluation of General Budget Support. Seven of these are external publications and are available for download from the DFID website. They include six, easy to digest, thematic briefing papers:
- What are the effects of General Budget Support?
- When and how should General Budget Support be used?
- How can the risks of General Budget Support be managed?
- How does General Budget Support affect ownership and accountability?
- General Budget Support – Policy Questions and Answers
- General Budget Support – General Questions and Answers
and a "Note on Approach and Methods" which, has been designed to act as a convenient point of reference for those undertaking evaluations of this type in future. In addition to these papers, the Evaluation Department has also published two "DFID specific" papers - Does General Budget Support help to build effective states?; and Does General Budget Support help deliver effectives services? For further information on any of these documents please contact James Bianco j-bianco@dfid.gov.uk.
"Sector Wide Approaches in Brazil: Features, drivers and emerging
lessons" final report. This study was commissioned by DFID Brazil to the
Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the University of Birmingham. The
ODI will be publishing a synopsis of the study in their Briefing Papers
series, and the full report will be also
available at their website. The aim
of this study is to provide a synthesis of lessons learned from SWAPs
supported by the World Bank in Brazil and to offer recommendations on how to
take the experience forward. For more information please contact Ernesto
Jeger E-Jeger@dfid.gov.uk.
DFID's new policy paper "Moving Out of Poverty - Making migration work
better for poor people"(346
kb) is now available. The paper explores the links
between migration and development, and considers how well managed migration
can contribute to poverty reduction. Migration is high on the agenda of
other Whitehall departments and as such the paper is the result of extensive
discussion, notably with Home Office and FCO colleagues.
Global Development Effectiveness Division (GDED) Restructuring Update
We would like to welcome Liz Gallacher to GDED. Liz joined on 2nd April and will be working as Sarah Cooke's Executive Assistant as well as providing admin support to the FACT Team.
Jennie Barugh has joined the CLEAR Team from 10th April, Jennie will be based
in Palace Street before transferring permanently to East Kilbride in May.
Recent seminars and events
The
Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (Platform) hosted a lunchtime
seminar on 18th April. The objective of the seminar was to heighten awareness of
the initiative and introduce the Platform as an instrument by its members to
heighten their development assistance impact. Apart from giving a comprehensive
overview of the Platform and its activities, the participants illustrated the
Platform, its achievements and challenges, as well as inter-linkages with
ongoing DFID programs, in a moderated discussion round. For more information
please contact Jim Harvey
Jim-Harvey@dfid.gov.uk.
DFIDSEA, together with UNIFEM and the World Bank, hosted a Gender and Aid
Effectiveness workshop in Bangkok on 2nd-3rd April. The workshop was based on
evidence from 4 case studies of programme and policy work in Cambodia,
Indonesia, Timor Leste and Vietnam. The workshop was seeking to assess the
opportunities and challenges posed by the pursuit of Paris Declaration
commitments for the achievement of gender equality objectives. The workshop was
also seeking to develop common strategies amongst donors and government for
furthering gender equality objectives both nationally and globally. A workshop
summary will be made available soon, as will the studies themselves. Please
contact Tom Beloe T-Beloe@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
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A Joint World Bank/DFID seminar "Strengthening Accountability and Results through PSIA"
was held in DFID on Thursday 29th March. DFID along with the World Bank, GTZ,
AFD, the Netherlands, UNDP, has supported the design of a country led capacity
development strategy for Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) in Africa.
The aim is to shift PSIA from being donor driven, to country led, as a way of
strengthening domestic accountability and promoting transparent, pro-poor,
evidence based policy making which systematically looks at the distributional
and poverty impact of policy reforms. This strategy was developed by a team of
six African and one UK consultant, based on case studies in Benin, Zambia and
Kenya, regional discussions and in the use of PSIA. The seminar included a
presentation by Ken Simler, of case studies and lessons learnt by the Bank in
PSIA and how this has influenced policy choices and a presentation of the Joint
donor strategy for PSIA capacity development in Africa by Sue Jones. For more
information please contact Katja Jobes
k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk.
The co-ordination of the Aid Effectiveness network, including the AE newsletter,
is undertaken by the Country Led Approaches and Results (CLEAR) Team based in
Abercrombie House. Catherine Ferry and Nicola Cairns are the contacts. To keep
abreast of the latest in aid effectiveness, please e-mail Catherine or Nicola
who will add your name to the mailing list. Please also let us know of any news
you have which relates to Aid Effectiveness. We will be glad to publicise
anything you are doing.
The co-ordination of the Aid Effectiveness (AE) network, including the AE newsletter, is undertaken by the Country Led Approaches and Results (CLEAR) team, based in Abercrombie House. Catherine Ferry, e-mail: c-ferry@dfid.gov.uk and Nicola Cairns, e-mail: n-cairns@dfid.gov.uk are the contacts. To keep abreast of the latest in aid effectiveness, please e-mail Catherine or Nicola who will add your name to the mailing list. Please also let us know of any news you have which relates to Aid Effectiveness. We will be glad to publicise anything you are doing.
Catherine Ferry and Nicola Cairns