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Aid Effectiveness Network news

Newsletter - February 2006

Highlights

• Progress on the UK International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill
• DFID produces draft how-to-note for conditionality policy
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Peer Review team visit DFID

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Aid Relationships

Poverty Reduction Strategies

• The Latin America and Caribbean Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) Donor Network held its annual meeting in November 2005. It discussed pro-poor growth in PRSs; politics and PRSs in the Latin American Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs)(208 kb), and experiences of multi-donor budget support. Contact Emma Morley for more details.
• CORDAID published a report Beyond Data: A Panorama of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Experiences with PRSP and HIPC Monitoring. This analyses the issues facing small organisations trying to monitor government budgets in developing countries. The case studies took place in Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Bangladesh.
   

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Conditionality

• DFID has produced a draft how-to note on implementing its conditionality policy(214 kb). It is being kept as a draft to allow for a period of testing, after which it will be reviewed in mid 2006. Comments can be sent to conditionality@dfid.gov.uk  For more details contact Jennie Barugh.

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Aid Harmonisation and Alignment

• The Government of Uganda and seven development partners have agreed a new Joint Assistance Strategy for Uganda. The strategy aligns with Uganda's Poverty Eradication Plan, and serves as a model for achieving co-ordination amongst donors. Contact Charlotte Pierre for more details.
• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published a report onThe cost of poverty: transaction costs and the struggle to make aid work in the education sector in TanzaniaThe report states that transaction costs can be reduced not only through efficiencies and donor harmonisation, but also through building better government-donor relationships, and increased focus on capacity building. 

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Mutual Accountability

• The UK is being peer reviewed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The Peer Review team, comprising USA, Italy and an observer from China, came to the UK on 23-27 January. The team addressed all aspects of the UK's development programme and met with other government departments, parliamentarians, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and research institutes, as well as DFID staff. There were special sessions to discuss aid effectiveness, policy coherence and fragile states. Contact Felicity Rose for more details.
• The OECD DAC has undertaken apeer review of Germany’s overseas development aid. The review welcomes Germany’s objective to reach 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2015, but warns that greater political support is needed if Germany is to live up to its pledge of increasing ODA.

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Poverty and Social Impact Analysis

• A strategy workshop on Building Capacity for Evidence Based Policy Making through Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA)(33 kb) was held on 16-17 January in Germany. Contact Peter Poulsen for more details.
• DFID's Development Effectiveness Group has been working with the PovNet Working Group for Ex-Ante Poverty Impact Assessment. This draws heavily on PSIA approaches but is intended to be simpler to apply. The working group is seeking donors interested in testing the methodology and in seeing if it adds value to the design and assessment of programmes. Contact Peter Poulsen for more details.

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Aid Instruments

Poverty Reduction Budget Support

• DFID Vietnam have funded awebsite on Sector Budget Support (SBS) to assist lesson learning, information sharing and discussion on SBS in Vietnam. Contact Anna Morris for more details.
• TheStrategic Partnership for Africa (SPA) meeting launched the next phase of its work, SPA-7 (2006-2008)(53 kb). Participants agreed to carry forward initiatives in three working groups: on budget support(86 kb) (co-chaired by DFID), sector support and capacity development. Contact Peter Dearden for more details.
• Gerster Consulting and Oxford Policy Management produced a report onExperiences with Performance Assessment Frameworks (PAFs) for General Budget Support. The report is based on three countries that have adopted harmonised PAFs (Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania), and two that are moving in this direction (Benin, Nicaragua). 

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Policy Coherence

• DFID is piloting country-level rapid assessments of the UK's development footprint in a range of countries including Bangladesh and Nigeria. Findings will be used for DFID's White Paper and Asia 2015 conference, as well as thinking on how DFID conducts development partnerships at a country level. Contact Eleanor Briers for more details.

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Development Finance

• As part of the British Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, the Secretary of State wrote to the Treasury proposing that the following areas be reviewed for DFID: scaling up, multilateral aid effectiveness, non-Public Service Agreement countries and fragile states. Contact Simon Gill for more details.
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published its report onGeographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Aid Recipients 2000- 2004. This provides data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resources to recipient countries.
• The World Bank produced a reportAid Effectiveness: can aid agencies be smarter than the invisible hand?This reflects on the ways that donors and recipients can use aid flows more effectively by learning from the successes of private financial flows.

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Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption

• A Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) - style evaluation of public financial management systems(701 kb) was carried out by the Zambian Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MoFNP) with support from DFID Zambia and other donors under the Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability (PEMFA) reform programme which commenced in 2005. Contact Alan Harding for more details.
• The Zambian Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is becoming increasingly active, and has produced a wholly Zambian owned National Corruption Prevention Strategy. Contact Sheona Duff for more details.
• The Financial Action Task Force met DFID's Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption team. The UK's work on anti-money laundering and the broader anti-corruption agenda, including DFID's support to regional anti-corruption bodies were discussed. Contact Sheona Duff for more details.

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Other Aid Effectiveness Information

• The International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill is progressing through Parliament. It aims to increase transparency in international development reporting, and place on the statute books a specific reference to the United Nations (UN) target for expenditure on Official Development Assistance (ODA) to constitute 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI). Contact Malcolm Geere for more details.
• The Centre for Global Development produced a field report on theMillennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme in Mozambique. This states that progress has been slow, suggesting that the MCA did not seek out enough information about Mozambique before engaging with it, and that lessons can be learnt from this experience in the next round of country engagement.

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DFID's Development Effectiveness Group Restructuring Update

• From 9 February, Caroline Rickatson took over from Fiona Lappin as Head of the Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption Team in DFID's East Kilbride office.
• Work from DFID's Poverty Reduction Strategies and Harmonisation (PRSH) and Poverty Analysis and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) review (PAM review) teams moved to the new Country-led Approaches and Results Team in East Kilbride, led by Helen Wedgwood. Work on G8, bilateral relations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and international harmonisation remained in London - the contact point is Greg Briffa.

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Recent and Upcoming Events

• Staff from the Brazilian Court of Audit shared their experiences of developing performance audit in Brazil on 27 January in DFID's London office. Contact Julie Lynn for more information.
• The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) hosted a seminar onAid and Trade - Partners or Rivals in Development Policy on 8 February.
• ODI presented a lunchtime seminar on Mutual Accountability for Better Development Results(102 kb) at DFID's London office on 9 February. Contact Tessa MacArthur for more information.
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Bank hosted the meeting on Procurement for the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness in the Philippines on 8-11 February.  Contact Margaret Robinson for more information.
• DFID, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are hosting the Asia 2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty conference in London on 6-7 March. The conference will propose strategies for reaching the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, including broadening partnerships in areas of trade, debt, migration and environment.
• The All Parliamentary Group and the ODI are running a series of seminars onWhat's next in International Development following 2005? This includes a seminar on 'Re-thinking Aid Architecture' with the Secretary of State on the 9 March.
• A workshop hosted by New Rules for Global Finance on Lessons from experiences with Ex-ante Poverty Impact Assessments of Macroeconomic Policies in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ghana, Nepal and the Philippines is taking place in Washington, DC on 13-16 March. Contact Peter Poulsen for more details.
   

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Many thanks to Ellen Wratten for managing the Aid Effectiveness (AE) team for the last three years. Ellen is taking up the post of Head of Profession, Social Development on 6 March.

Many thanks to Anna Walters for all her work on the AE newsletter over the past year. Anna is taking six months maternity leave (congratulations!), after which she will take up the post of Country Representative in DFID Angola.

Welcome to Eleanor Briers, the new Policy Analyst, who is taking over from Anna as manager of the AE network.

If you want to keep abreast of the latest in aid effectiveness, please e-mail Louise Mellor 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.

All the best,

James Bird
Louise Mellor
Anna Walters
Eleanor Briers