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Aid Effectiveness Network news
Newsletter - February 2007
Highlights
Aid Relationships
Country Led Approaches
An assessment of the impact of Aid Effectiveness
on Social Policy
(19
kb) is underway to improve the evidence base on the relationship
between social policy cross cutting issues, aid effectiveness and poverty
reduction. This work seeks to fill an identified gap on progress in implementing
the Paris Declaration and help develop an evidence-based position at the High
Level Forum in Ghana in 2008 for strengthening the focus in social policy and
poverty outcomes as part of the aid effectiveness agenda.
It will also contribute to the consolidated progress report at Ghana. It aims to inform and influence donor positions on ways to improve implementation and review of the Paris Declaration, including how cross cutting social policy issues may be promoted and monitored as part of the aid effectiveness agenda in the future. Phase 1 underway now, sets the scope for phase 2 which is expected to attract joint funding from Nordic+ partners.
We are seeking to build on existing
initiatives in country offices to support case studies, and are already working
closely with DFID SE Asia on gender and the Paris Declaration. For further
information on this project please see the full
Terms of Reference(96
kb) or contact Katja Jobes, e-mail:
k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk or Rahul Malhotra, e-mail:
r-malhotra@dfid.gov.uk.
A useful discussion between DFID and UKAN took place recently to take a forward look at the outcomes we would like to see at the High Level Forum in Ghana 2008. The discussion covered process, content and aid architecture issues with a particular focus on:
- the expected process leading up to Ghana
- civil society engagement in the Paris monitoring more generally and opening up the Ghana dialogue between DFID and civil society beyond UKAN
- improved definitions of indicators and possible addenda indicators of areas not covered
- more substantive discussion on donor performance and DFID performance
- mutual accountability - greater transparency and access to information up to and beyond Ghana with improved mechanisms for scrutiny and transparency around donor behaviour at international and country levels.
The next steps are to have further discussions internally, agreeing jointly on areas for follow-up including a readout from Hanoi, access to information and mutual accountability. For further information please contact Katja Jobes, e-mail: k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk.
Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA)
The inception report for the PSIA Joint Donor Capacity Development Initiative for Africa is now available. The report provides a very reader friendly summary of the design phase to date, the methodology and the information that the pilot case studies will provide to feed into the design proposal. This is due at the end of March. This initiative focuses on developing the potential of PSIA as a mechanism to strengthen pro-poor, transparent and evidence-based policy making which is country-led, demand-driven and stakeholder involved. For more information please contact Katja Jobes, e-mail: k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk.
Development Financing
Scaling Up
The Scaling Up for Better Health Initiative follows on from the post High-Level Forum on aid effectiveness in the health sector. It seeks to develop better harmonisation and alignment. Its overall goal is to ensure that aid for basic health services increases, in order to complement recent increases in disease-specific funds.
Based on a series of technical meetings in 2005 and 2006 that established the arguments for more coordination of donors and technical assistance in the health sector, the steering committee for the Initiative commissioned a set of reports to examine how such an initiative might function. Without proposing another fund for the health sector, and with a clear steer from the steering committee to not recreate debate about a Fast Track Initiative in health, the consultants are examining questions about how to structure such an initiative.
The main questions are:
- how to improve mutual accountability between donors (of funds and technical assistance)
- how to improve accountability between donors for the donor community's commitments, and
- how to best mobilise resources around a common plan with a common set of success measures.
The consultants reports are due at the end of January, and the steering committee will discuss how to take them forward through February in time for action in March. Please contact Matt Gordon, m-gordon@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption
The U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre - We’d like to remind you about the U4 (previously Utstein) Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, which DFID funds along with Norad and Sida. This virtual Resource Centre provides an information management service on anti-corruption issues for staff of the U4 agencies (Norway, Sweden, the UK, Canada, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands). It acts as a focal point to co-ordinate activities and improve the availability and sharing of technical capacity and information on anti-corruption.
The Resource Centre also provides very useful services including:
- A helpdesk – staffed by Transparency International which answers queries from U4 agency staff on everything from conceptual questions to practical problems related to anti-corruption.
- From the website anyone can search the helpdesk database of replies to previous queries.
- Tailored anti-corruption training – courses run on-line and in-country. Many DFID staff have already undertaken the on-line course at no cost, as DFID funds the centre. In country courses in 2007 are being run in Tanzania, Pakistan and Georgia.
The U4 website contains theme pages such as Corruption in Emergency Situations, Political Corruption and so on.
- The website can be accessed by anyone, but DFID staff can access additional information (using a password) on U4 agency’s anti-corruption projects and training provided by the Resource Centre.
For further information contact Sheona Duff, e-mail: s-duff@dfid.gov.uk in the FACT team.
On 30 January 2007, the first raid was conducted by the newly established International Corruption Group - staffed by officers from the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police, and part-funded by DFID. We have increased their capacity to investigate foreign bribery and counter money laundering, by funding the employment and associated costs of 16 additional police officers.
DFID set up and funded the International Corruption group because evidence shows that corruption holds back development in poor countries by taking away money that should be spent on education and health, so hitting the poorest hardest. Investigations such as this demonstrate the UK's commitment to fight corruption.
Hilary Benn is the Cabinet Minister with cross-government responsibility for leading the fight against international corruption. The International Corruption Group brings together the experience of the Serious Fraud Office and Serious Organised Crime Agency with new capacity in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police.
Please contact Danny O’Mahony, e-mail: d-omahony@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
Other Aid Effectiveness Information
The annual Plenary Meeting of the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA) is taking place between 21-22 February in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Plenary co-chaired by the vice-president of the World Bank, meets once a year to discuss developments in Africa and in international aid, review the work being conducted by the SPA and set future directions.
Preceding the plenary meeting, the SPA Working Groups on Budget Support, Sector Support and Capacity Development will be meeting on 19-20 February to discuss the findings of the SPA 2006 Budget Support Survey. The survey covered 20 donors and 15 African countries, and commitments of $2.9 billion of general budget support, it has provided a unique source of information on the evolution of the budget support instrument in Africa.
The groups will also discuss how to deepen the SPA work on Sector Budget Support (SBS), including in the light of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) General Budget Support Joint Evaluation, the 2005 NORAD-funded study on SBS, and further work on SBS by CIDA. Please contact Peter Dearden, e-mail: p-dearden@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
DFID Tanzania has just published its new Country Assistance Plan (CAP) for 2007-10. The CAP is set against the broader context of Tanzania's National for Growth and Reduction of Poverty and the Joint Assistance Strategy for Tanzania (JAST) to make aid more effective. The UK Secretary of State for International Development announced a commitment of £105 million of general budget support to the Government of Tanzania during 2007/08. Please contact Eunice Urio, e-mail: e-urio@dfid.gov.uk for further details.
Upcoming Events
The 38th Session of the United Nations (UN) Statistical Commission will take place in New York on
27 February - 2 March 2007. It will discuss questions such as education
statistics, population and housing censuses, national accounts, development
indicators and national statistical capacity building. It will also share
information on such issues as migration, energy and finance statistics. For more
information please refer to theStatistical Commission website or contact
Siobhan Carey, e-mail: s-carey@dfid.gov.uk.
Recent Events
In 2008 there will be a Third High Level Forum (HLF-3) on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana. These are organised under the leadership of the DAC's Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and attended at ministerial level. It will be the first High Level Forum since the landmark Paris Declaration in 2005 which committed the participating donors and partner countries to improving aid effectiveness around the following principles:
- ownership
- alignment
- harmonisation
- mutual accountability, and
- managing for results.
HLF-3 in Ghana will be a stock take of donor and partner country progress on delivering the 2005 commitments and an opportunity to look ahead at key issues for aid effectiveness post-2010. The Steering Committee preparing HLF-3 of which the UK is a member, met for the first time at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris on 18 January.
It was agreed that HLF-3 will aim to widen its participation and scope, and seek to draw more partner countries, emerging donors, and civil society into the preparation of the event and into better following the Paris principles. Potential issues to be discussed at the HLF include:
- capacity development
- infrastructure and service sectors
- local procurement and complementarity, and
- division of labour.
The Steering Committee will continue to meet quarterly to prepare the event, including in the host country Ghana. Please contact Emily Travis, e-mail: e-travis@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
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 (c-ferry@dfid.gov.uk) and Nicola Cairns (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