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Aid Effectiveness Network news
Newsletter - November 2006
Highlights
Aid Relationships
Aid Harmonisation and Alignment
- Following the nomination of Zambia to host the next regional review on harmonisation/alignment, a consultation meeting took place in Livingstone, Zambia from 25-27 October 2006
(68 kb). The consultations gave an excellent opportunity for delegates and officials to review the challenges, and progress made on issues relating to Harmonisation in the context of the Paris Declaration. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for countries to share experiences by assessing the progress made and problems faced drawing from previous consultations. It is hoped that from the consultations and outcomes of the meeting, a process of dialogue may be created that will allow policy makers to have access to vital information when making decisions that relate to harmonisation and coordination. Please contact Bruce Lawson-McDowall, e-mail: b-mcdowall@dfid.gov.uk for more details.
Country Led Approaches
- Partner countries and donors agreed that more needed to be done to accelerate progress towards the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Paris Declaration commitments at the Asia Regional Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Manila from 18-20 October. The event supported by DFID, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, brought together delegations from over 25 partner countries including government and civil society as well as a range of donors. The Forum, which provided partner countries with space to discuss their common issues, presented strong messages for donors - for example on the need to speed up progress in improving the quality of Technical Assistance (TA). Donors and partner countries agreed that more needed to be done to establish priorities for improving aid effectiveness in Asia prior to the OECD DAC High Level Forum in Ghana 2008. The Forum summary and associated papers which included DFID commissioned comparative studies of aid effectiveness initiatives implemented in 7 Asian countries are available from the
Asian Development Bank website. For more information please contact Tom Beloe, e-mail: t-beloe@dfid.gov.uk
Aid Instruments / Development Finance
- Statistics on International Development (SID) 2006 have now been released for the financial year 2005/06. SID is produced annually to report on development progress in individual aid recipient countries and on the deployment of official UK financial resources to support such progress. The statistics provide details of the volume, type, destination and purpose of all UK development assistance. Please contact statsmis@dfid.gov.uk for further information.
- The Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank recently signed the Multi-Donor Trust Fund Grant Agreement amounting to USD$450 million for the Bangladesh Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Program (HNPSP). The total budget is USD$4.2 billion making it one of the largest social sector programmes in the world, with the Government of Bangladesh financing 70% and development partners 30% of this. The signing ceremony was attended by Government officials, development partners, civil society, and the media. For more details, please contact Goutam Chandra Dhar, e-mail: g-dhar@dfid.gov.uk
Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption
- On 7th November 2006, DFID hosted a meeting with a delegation of 10 senior Vietnamese government officials representing the newly formed Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, who were undertaking a study visit to the UK to examine UK anti-corruption, economic crime prevention and financial governance practices. Global Development Effectiveness Division (GDED)/Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption Team (FACT) coordinated the visit to DFID at the request of DFID Vietnam. A number of presentations were provided, which were aimed to assist the delegation to formulate their anti-corruption strategy and, in due course, with the development of a National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Policy Statement for Vietnam. The delegation was welcomed by Charlotte Seymour-Smith, Director, Asia Division, and was debriefed on DFID’s approach to governance, anti-corruption, checks and balances, and public financial management by FACT/GDED, Governance and Social Development (GSD)/Policy Division (PD), Business Alliances Team (BAT)/PD, Internal Audit Department (IAD), as well as the ‘global drivers of corruption’ by Mick Moore from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). For more details, please contact Robert Hyland, e-mail: r-hyland@dfid.gov.uk.
Other Aid Effectiveness Information
- This year's
Global Development Effectiveness Division (GDED) Restructuring Update
- Catherine McGowan in the Country Led Approaches and Results (CLEAR) Team has recently married and now wishes to be known as Catherine Ferry, e-mail: c-ferry@dfid.gov.uk
- Penny Innes, e-mail: p-innes@dfid.gov.uk has recently joined the CLEAR team as Senior Results Adviser, Penny will be working in Palace Street until Christmas and will then be based permanently in Abercrombie House (AH130) in the New Year.
Upcoming Events
- The Inter-Agency Expert Group on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators will meet in Geneva on 13-16 November. The first session will cover issues of co-ordination and reporting modalities for the agencies officially designated as data providers for the global monitoring exercise. The second session, with participation of experts from international agencies and national statistical offices, will cover a broader agenda including assessment of data, metadata and methodologies on MDG Indicators. For more information please contact Benedicte Terryn, e-mail: b-terryn@dfid.gov.uk
- The Third International Roundtable on Managing for Development Results (MfDR) will be held in Hanoi on February 5-8 2007. This follows earlier Roundtables in Marrakesh (2004) and Washington (2002). Inaugurated at the Monterrey Financing for Development Conference in 2002 by the heads of the five multilateral development banks (MDBs), the MfDR initiative is one of the principal precursors of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The common theme is that if there is to be more aid, then its effectiveness in terms of development results needs also to be strengthened. The Hanoi Roundtable is the major international aid effectiveness conference between the Paris High Level Forum (HLF) in 2005 and the Ghana HLF scheduled for autumn 2008. More details on MfDR, and plans for the Roundtable, can be found at the
- Overseas Development Institute (ODI), APGOOD, the DSA and DFID recently held
Recent Events
- The Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, launched the new DFID film on Aid Effectiveness on 7th November in Palace Street. As part of DFID's Aid Effectiveness Communications Strategy, the Aid Effectiveness and Accountability Department and Information and Civil Society Department have produced two new films, which respond to public concerns that aid is wasted, and provide positive messages of what happens when aid is effectively delivered. The short "Aid Works" version was launched by SoS with the longer version, "Making Aid Work" which focuses on key aid effectiveness principles, illustrated by a case study from Vietnam, being presented at lunchtime seminars in East Kilbride and Palace Street. Please contact Kate Alexander, e-mail: k2-alexander@dfid.gov.uk or Jennifer Boyle, j-boyle@dfid.gov.uk for more details.
- "Where are the Poor?" this seminar took place on 6th November from 12.00 to 2.00pm in 3W14 and AH101. The seminar was about the issue of monitoring poverty being one of utmost importance in our work. Guest speakers included Shaohua Chen (World Bank) and Sanjay Reddy (Columbia University). Shaohua explained how poverty headcounts are calculated and the impact of Purchasing Power Parities on the headcounts. Sanjay presented a summary of his paper on
The co-ordination of the Aid Effectiveness Network, including the Aid Effectiveness newsletter, is now being 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 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