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“BETTER AID” IS “NO AID”, OBSERVE ZAMBIAN CSOs AT THE HIGH-LEVEL FORUM FOR AID EFFECTIVENESS
September 2008
We, the Zambian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) represented at the CSOs Parallel Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana have resolved to continue following and monitoring progress on the implementation of the Paris Declaration. We are also committed to the position taken by the over 700 CSOs from all over the world that gathered in Accra, August 31 – September 1, 2008, to prepare input into the official High Level Forum (HLF) on aid effectiveness between donors and aid recipients countries.
It is sad that such an important event is taking place at the time when Zambia and Africa as whole has lost a President. This has resulted in the non-participation of the official Zambian delegation. The Zambian government is a member of the International Advisory Group, which developed the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA).
In the past, we have held national consultations with the Government at which we have had opportunities to input into the national position on the Accra Agenda for Action.
As Zambian CSOs represented in Accra, we have the following recommendations to both our government and donor countries on each of the five principles of the Paris Declaration.
To the donors
- Alignment: support to projects and programmes must be explicitly designed on locally identified needs and priorities. In addition, technical assistance must also be designed to ensure that it builds the local personnel to take over within the shortest feasible period of time.
- Harmonisation: donors and donor agencies must coordinate their efforts through a single framework for which those agencies working in isolation and none signatories to the Paris Declaration must be urged to join.
- Mutual accountability: demand for accountability must not undermine recipient governments’ obligations to account to their own citizens.
- Managing for results: results must emphasise genuine processes for achieving qualitative human development outcomes.
- Ownership: emphasis must be placed on democratic ownership that encourages the crucial role of already existing institutions such as Parliament, which represents the ultimate beneficiaries of aid.
To the Zambian Government
- Alignment: all stakeholders must be engaged in developing and improving prioritised projects and programmes to which donors must align their aid. In addition, government must invest in capacity development to enable local personnel take charge of the development process.
- Harmonisation: government must make a strong appeal to the isolated donor and donor agencies and none signatories to the PD to harmonise their development efforts in Zambia.
- Mutual Accountability: government must be accountable to the citizens and respect established legal and institutional frameworks. In addition, the Sector Advisory Groups (SAGs) must improve on timely information sharing for CSOs’ effective engagement.
- Managing for results: channels like the Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) to engage CSOs and private sector in the process of monitoring the PD. Moreover, there is need to develop locally defined indicators for assessing progress of aid effectiveness targets.
- Ownership: decentralised policies must be introduced to enable local citizens’ participation in development processes. Democratic ownership must be a locally embedded process.
Conclusion
In light of the meeting taking place at a time when there is a looming international financial crisis (credit-crunch); the rising world food and oil prices; climate change; gender and income inequalities; and the collapse of the World Trade Organisation Doha round affecting both producers and consumers in the developed and developing world, we strongly urge the Zambian government and the donor community to seriously commit aid to achieve integral and sustainable human development. The Accra HLF must not be an end but a means of reviewing the whole aid architecture.
As Zambian CSOs, we strongly believe that “better aid” is “no aid at all”. Therefore, the urgency for developing an exit strategy for self-reliance is a must!
Signed:
NGOCC – Non- Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council
JCTR – Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
CSPR – Civil Society for Poverty Reduction
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