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Aid Effectiveness Network news
Newsletter - September 2006
Highlights
Aid Instruments / Development Finance
- Development Effectiveness Group has published guidance to help programme managers and advisers in country offices with choice and design of aid instruments. The short version, in the form of the how-to-note, Guidance on Aid Instruments, offers a summary of the full guidance, which gives detailed information including more examples of good practice from country programmes. The note explains how to choose, design and combine aid instruments and use them in different country contexts. It also gives definitions, design features and good practice for individual aid instruments and approaches such as poverty reduction budget support, technical cooperation, sector-wide approaches, and global funds and partnerships. The guidance is part of the Best Practice Guidance on Programme Design and Management launched by Programme Guidance Group in July. For more information contact Peter Colenso, e-mail: p-colenso@dfid.gov.uk or Jennie Barugh, e-mail: j-barugh@dfid.gov.uk
- DFID has contributed £90 million to the Government of Tanzania as part of a three-year commitment of £310 million made by the UK to Tanzania in January 2006. The funds will support the implementation of the Tanzanian Government's National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, or Mkukuta. The money will be provided in the form of General Budget Support (GBS), and will supplement the budget of the Government of Tanzania, allowing it to speed up the country's progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals. For further information please contact DFID's Press Office, e-mail: pressoffice@dfid.gov.uk
- Zambia's multi-donor Poverty Reduction Budget Support Programme (PRBS) which was launched in March 2005, has demonstrated strong progress over the past 18 months. The third joint review of the programme took place in June 2006, where Government performance in 2005 was appraised against an interim Performance Assessment Framework (PAF). Overall, performance was judged to have been satisfactory with 85% targets fully met. For more information please contact Alan Harding, e-mail: a-harding@dfid.gov.uk or Kerry Nelson, e-mail: k-nelson@dfid.gov.uk
Other Aid Effectiveness Information
- Central Research Department (CRD) is currently undertaking a scoping study to establish whether there is demand for a potential long-term research programme on aid effectiveness that could play a role in informing the policy debate on changing aid modalities, scaling up of aid delivery and aid/growth/poverty linkages. Two academics, Paul Mosley and John Hudson, and one research assistant, Inja Vatne, have been commissioned to review existing literature and interview donors, policy makers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international researchers to identify gaps and establish demand for new research. The team has already had one day of meetings at DFID, and will be back for a second round Thursday 21 September. They would very much appreciate your opinion and views on what you see as the main gaps in research on aid effectiveness. If you would like to contribute please contact Inja Vatne, e-mail: iiv@enterplan.co.uk
- The UK, in partnership with Sweden and Canada, launched its new partnership 'Working together with UNICEF for the World's Children'. This 'Joint Institutional Approach' (JIA) represents a commitment by the three donor partners to harmonise efforts, in the spirit of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, in support of UNICEF as it implements its Medium Term Strategic Plan for 2006-9. We expect this partnership to strengthen UNICEF's performance in implementing its commitments for children. Through the JIA, we will track, challenge and support UNICEF in these areas. A joint action plan and monitoring framework is currently being developed to take this forward. Contact Karen McGeough, e-mail: k-mcgeough@dfid.gov.uk for more details.
Policy Division Restructuring Update
- Following the Senior Management Review, the Management Board have agreed that the start date for the new Global Development Effectiveness Division (GDED) will be 23 October, when Owen Barder returns to DFID to take up the post of Director. On that date, International Trade Department will move to the new division from Europe Trade and International Division, which will be renamed International Finance and Europe Division (IFED). Central Research Department will move to Policy Division, which will be renamed Policy and Research Division (PRD).
- Development Financing and Instruments Team staff moves: Frances Heeks left her post as the team's Statistics Adviser on 6th September to commence a secondment outside DFID. Frances will be replaced in mid October by Frances Harper. Also in October, Shailaja Annamraju will take up her post leading on the team's aid allocation work.
Upcoming Events
- The United Nations (UN) High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development gets under way in New York between the 14-15 September. The purpose is to talk about the different aspects of international migration and development and to identify ways to maximise the development benefits from migration and minimise its negative impacts. Baroness Royall will lead the UK delegation, supported by officials from DFID, the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Please contact Camilla Bowen, e-mail: c-bowen@dfid.gov.uk for more details.
- DFID (led by DFID South East Asia) are jointly organising an Asia Regional Forum on Aid Effectiveness with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank. The three day event will take place in Manila, the Philippenes at the ADB's headquarters from 18-20 October 2006. Two days will be spent in working level discussions with the final day bringing senior officials together for high level discussions. Opportunities include independent analysis of the aid effectiveness initiatives, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks, the chance to feed into the regional debate and bring country experience to the attention of donor Head Quarters (HQs), and to help other Asian countries. Asian country offices can get involved by opening the discussion with other donors about approaching government and securing participation, recommending and encouraging influential invitees and facilitation of case studies. For more information, please contact Debbie Warrener e-mail: d-warrener@dfid.gov.uk A website will be available shortly.
Recent Events
- Portal for Development Indicators - A meeting was held with an internal management team and software developers to agree on the specification for a portal for development indicators, which would provide one-stop easy access to a range of international indicators, and guide users through the relevant data and metadata to produce relevant and consistent tables and charts across the organisation. A feasibility study will be undertaken. Please contact Benedicte Terryn, e-mail: b-terryn@dfid.gov.uk for more information.
- The myths and realities of good governance and anti-corruption were examined at a July seminar hosted by the Effective States Team. The speaker was Daniel Kaufmann, Director of Global Governance at the World Bank Institute. The seminar challenged common assumptions, such as that good governance is the same as anti-corruption, or that it is necessarily an outcome of development and growth. The seminar then progressed to considering ways of measuring governance to gain evidence to support policies and strategies. For more information, contact Tanweena Chowdhury e-mail: t-chowdhury@dfid.gov.uk
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, Scotland. Catherine McGowan e-mail: c-mcgowan@dfid.gov.uk and Nicola Cairns n-cairns@dfid.gov.uk are the new 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 McGowan and Nicola Cairns