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Aid Effectiveness Network news - Newsletter - June 2007
Highlights
- First response to the International Development (Transparency and Reporting) Act 2006 is set out in DFID's Annual Report 2007.
- Secretary of State announces new Independent Body to monitor Evaluation Activities.
Country Led Approaches
Strengthening the Poverty Impact of the Paris Declaration through gender, rights and exclusion. To generate an evidence base, providing practical recommendations and building support among Aid Effectiveness stakeholders to increase focus on gender, rights and social exclusion in strengthening the impact of the Paris Declaration. The aim is to use this evidence to influence the outcomes of the Ghana High Level Forum in Sept 2008. Phase 1 of the project is now complete and includes an accessible literature review and civil society perspectives . Both reports demonstrate the relevance and entry points for integrating gender, rights and exclusion into the Aid Effectiveness and Harmonisation agenda. Phase 2 of the project is already underway, DFID has began the tender process to support its work on aid effectiveness and social policy. We're currently requesting expressions of interest from Northern and Southern institutions and consultants. We would be interested in hearing from any countries for the case studies or examples of good practice of integrating gender, rights and exclusion into the new aid modalities and ways of working around the Paris Declaration principles. For further information please contact Katja Jobes, email: K-Jobes@dfid.gov.uk.
Policy Coherence for Development
International Development (Transparency and Reporting) Act 2006: The
first response to the International Development (Transparency and Reporting) Act
2006 is set out in
DFID's Annual Report 2007. This provides an assessment on the impact of the
UK's non-aid policies (climate change, trade, migration, security, technology
and research etc) on international development. It highlights the need for
greater emphasis of non-aid policies and policy coherence issues. For further
information please contact Andrew Preston, email:
A-Preston@dfid.gov.uk.
DFID and UNDP are collaborating on a project to assist developing countries map
the "beyond the border" issues affecting their development, with the aim to
provide better evidence to inform policy discussions in both developed and
developing countries. This will enable developing countries to engage with
"beyond the border" issues more effectively and contribute to the creation of a
more supportive international policy environment. For further information please
contact Andrew Preston, email:
A-Preston@dfid.gov.uk.
Other Aid Effectiveness Information
Heiligendamm G8 summit 2007: This year the G8 summit took place on the
6-8 June in Heiligendamm. Aid and debt promises were set out at Gleneagles in
2005, with over 80 commitments such as universal access to AIDS treatment, free
basic education and malaria. This year, Heiligendamm set out how to achieve
these commitments in more detail. There was progress on universal access to AIDS
prevention, treatment and care by 2010 through $60bn extra aid committed over
the next few years, and financial commitments to support action on prevention of
mother to child transmission, paediatric treatments and maternal and child
health totalling $4.8bn. Heiligendamm also urged different countries to increase
their aid including the US commitment of $30bn on AIDS, the German commitment of
$3bn over 4 years and the Italian promise to double aid to Africa. For further
information please contact Chris Carter, email:
C-Carter@dfid.gov.uk.
The methodology for assessing progress towards the MDGs at country level
(the colourful traffic light assessment) has been reviewed by external experts
and the final report will be available later this month. Implementation of the
new methodology will take place over the summer. The new assessment will be
released in September. For further information please contact Benedicte Terryn,
email: B-Terryn@dfid.gov.uk.
Independent Advisory Committee for Development Impact (IACDI): The
Secretary of State recently announced a new independent body to monitor
evaluation activities. The Committee will comprise external experts who will
challenge and advise DFID on the overall strategy, approach and priorities being
adopted in its evaluation work. The committee will guarantee the independence of
the evaluation function in DFID and the use of evaluation results to enhance the
delivery and impact of UK development assistance. Recruitment for the Committee
will take place shortly and it’s hoped the first meeting will be held in the
autumn. For more information please contact Lynn Quinn, email:
L-Quinn@dfid.gov.uk.
EvD delegates (Clare Harkin, Lynn Quinn, Brian Dean, with Katja Jobes from CLEAR
team) will attend a meeting in Stockholm next week to discuss the Citizens'
Voice & Accountability evaluation. This is a DFID-led joint evaluation with
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. The meeting will
discuss terms of reference and the selection of countries for case studies,
following the pilot studies in Benin and Nicaragua. For more information please
contact Lynn Quinn, email:
L-Quinn@dfid.gov.uk.
The Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA) is a voluntary partnership of
donor agencies (bilateral and multilateral) and African governments and
pan-African institutions which exists to promote aid effectiveness in
Sub-Saharan Africa. It conducts cross-country analytical work through three
Working Groups, on Budget Support, Sector Support and Capacity Development, for
discussion at the annual Plenary meeting. This process helps to identify and
promote aid effectiveness good practice. The Plenary and Working Groups have
African and donor Co-Chairs. For further information, contact Peter Dearden,
email: P-Dearden@dfid.gov.uk in Pan
Africa Strategy Department.
Poverty Impact Analysis (PIA): The OECD has been seeking to improve donor
members understanding of the poverty impact of their assistance. To address this
need, a povnet working group has developed the Poverty Impact Analysis (PIA)
Practical Guide. DFID has been an active leader in promoting our experience from
PSIA, and encourages greater focus on the role of country partners. The Guide
assists stakeholders to assess the potential impacts of interventions (projects,
programs, policies). PIA draws on existing information helping to identify areas
where more intensive data collection and analysis is required, to inform the
design of the intervention. With DFID encouragement, the PSIA network and the
PIA network are now working closely together; thus continuing to encourage a
broader role for PIA than original envisaged. For further information please
contact Peter Poulsen, email:
P-Poulsen@dfid.gov.uk.
Strategies for Tackling International Bribery: Payment of bribes to
secure contracts overseas was once accepted business practice. Today companies
that pay bribes, risk being prosecuted and debarred from public tenders. UK
registered companies and UK nationals can now be prosecuted in the UK for paying
bribes in international business transactions, even when the act of bribery was
committed wholly overseas. At a meeting with Trade Unions in November 2006 the
Secretary of State agreed that DFID would host a conference with Trade Unions
and business to raise awareness about anti-corruption issues. The result was the
very successful Seminar on Strategies for Tackling International Bribery
organised by the FACT team in AEAD and UNICORN (the global union’s
anti-corruption network). The seminar was opened by The Secretary of State and
closed by the Right Honourable Ian McCartney, Minister of State at the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office and the Department for Trade and Industry. Participants
included trade unions, business representatives from the defence, construction,
extractive industries, utilities, public and financial sectors, as well as
government representatives and anti-corruption experts. The aims of the seminar
were to:
- improve awareness of the impacts of corruption and the legal and policy context for combating international bribery and corruption;
- share information on tools and initiatives aimed at reducing bribery and corruption in business;
- identify how trade unions and business can work together to combat bribery and corruption.
For further information please contact Sheona Duff, email: S-Duff@dfid.gov.uk.
Recent Documents
- The latest reports in Evaluation Department's programme of Country Programme Evaluations (CPEs, now mandatory for PSA countries) for Vietnam
and the Caribbean
- The report in Interim Evaluation of DFID's 2005 Agriculture Policy
Upcoming Seminars & Events
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Event:
The Financial Accountability and anti-Corruption Team (FACT) will be
participating in the CIPFA Annual Conference and Exhibition on the 12th – 14th
June 2007, in Bournemouth. The theme of this year’s conference is “Modern Public
Services - are we there yet?” DFID’s stand in the conference exhibition provides
a good opportunity to raise awareness of our work and we will also participate
in a seminar “How the UK can help in improving developing and transition economy
country public sector performance”. The conference is an excellent opportunity
for public, corporate and other organisations to share information and contacts
on development issues. If you have any questions on the CIPFA conference, please
contact Mark Herbert.
Multilateral Effectiveness and Financing: DFID is hosting a senior-level
bilateral donor meeting in London on June 20th to address multilateral
effectiveness and financing issues. The purpose of this meeting is (i) To
informally discuss the criteria to be used for making choices between
multilaterals in upcoming replenishment processes (IDA, EDF, ADF, UN) (ii) To
disseminate methods for assessing the effectiveness of multilaterals to inform
these replenishments (iii) To discuss how such assessments could be completed
together in the future. A report of the meeting will appear in the July edition
of the AE newsletter. For further information please contact Lillian Bayne or
Stefan Kossoff in International Directors Office.
Trade Induction Training: DFID’s International Trade Department is
running a Trade Induction Course on 21 June 2007. The course is open to all DFID
staff and will cover issues about why trade is important to DFID, the view from
the developing country perspective and sessions of a more practical nature on
how aid for trade issues affect DFID country programmes. More details will be
provided nearer the time. If you are interested in registering for a place,
please contact Andy Willson.
Fragile States Workshop: Do you want to find out how other offices have
addressed the same problems you are facing? Do you want to make new links with
other programme managers or advisers from different cadres and get a fresh
perspective? Come to the first ever DFID Global Fragile States Workshop at
Eynsham Hall, October 30 - 1 November 2007. Invitations to issue soon. Draft
programme and further information available from Catherine Masterman, Fragile
States Team.
Recent Seminars & Events
EvD delegates (Nick York, John Heath, Jeremy Clarke) attended the Network
of Networks on Impact Evaluation in the Hague on 24/25 May, hosted by the
Dutch with DFID and the World Bank helping to organise. A shared work programme
on impact evaluation was agreed by reps from the bilaterals, multilaterals and
UN family and the African Evaluation Association also attended. DFID will chair
the network for the next 12 months. 5 donors including DFID have agreed to put
funds into setting up the network and future activities. For further information
please contact John Heath, email:
J-Heath@dfid.gov.uk.
The interim evaluation of
Taking Action: The UK Government's Strategy for Tackling HIV and AIDS in the
Developing World was published in May and featured at the PUSS's AIDS
strategy public consultation launch at the Houses of Parliament which was
attended by MPs, civil society, bilateral and multilateral partners.
What’s Next in International Development? HMG’s perspective was put
forward by the PUSS in this first in a series of three meetings held in the
Boothroyd Room at Portcullis House. The meetings are being held in conjunction
with APGOOD, and will feature speakers from the other parties. If you are
interested in attending the next meeting or for further information, please
contact ODI, email: meetings@odi.org.uk
stating your name and organisation.
Leadership & Aid Effectiveness: The Governance & Social Development group
recently hosted a seminar on whether DFID and other donors are currently missing
something important, are donors too focussed on institutions and not enough on
leaders? Is there a role for donors in supporting current and future leaders in
developing countries in order to maximise the effectiveness of our aid? For
further information please contact Colleen Roshdy, email:
C-Roshdy@dfid.gov.uk.
The GeoData Institute hosted a lunchtime seminar on Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) and their use in development (from governance to
humanitarian aid). Presenters, Andrew Murdock and Craig Hutton discussed the
potential of GIS for addressing socio-economic question in the developing world,
from mapping poverty and the incidence of disease to informing policy. The
presentation was supported by live GUS demonstrations and showed some of the
datasets that are available to address these issues. For further information
please contact Kim Bradford Smith, email:
K-Bradford-Smith@dfid.gov.uk.
A workshop on Development Effectiveness in Practice was recently held in
Dublin to increase mutual knowledge & understanding of how practitioners are
applying the Paris Declaration's principles to advance development outcomes in
gender equality, environmental sustainability and human rights. Participants
included partner governments, donor agencies, civil society at country &
international levels and members of the DAC subsidiary bodies. The workshop
highlighted that preparations for the 3rd High Level Forum in Ghana provides an
opportunity to offer evidence and reaffirm the importance of development
outcomes to the success of aid effectiveness efforts. A summary document and
full length report will be posted on the
workshop
website in due course. For further information please contact Helen
Wedgwood, email: H-Wedgwood@dfid.gov.uk
or Rahul Malhotra, email:
R-Malhotra@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.
Catherine Ferry (C-Ferry@dfid.gov.uk) and Nicola Cairns (N-Cairns@dfid.gov.uk)