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IWTC WOMEN’S GLOBALNET #344 ACTIVITIES & INITIATIVES OF
WOMEN WORLDWIDE TRACKING THE MONEY TRAIL: WOMEN
SPEAK OUT ON DEVELOPMENT AID Helena
Gronberg & Natalie Raaber October
8, 2008 |
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1. ACCRA WOMEN’S FORUM – KEY RECOMMENDATIONS for 3rd
HIGH LEVEL FORUM IN ACCRA, GHANA 2. OUTCOME OF 3rd HIGH LEVEL FORUM 3. REGISTERING FOR DOHA DECEMBER 2008 4. MEASURING PROGRESS OF THE PARIS DECLARATION |
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Over 100 governments convened
in Accra, Ghana from September 2 to 4, 2008 in a third of a series of
High-Level Forums that examined the flows of development aid and the most
effective means of achieving results through its distribution. The Third
High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness follows up on a process that began at a
meeting of senior diplomats in Paris (2005) and led to the Paris Declaration
on Aid Effectiveness – an agreement between countries on reforming and
streamlining the process of giving and receiving aid. Though civil society
has an enormous stake in the outcomes of these summits, their participation
went unsolicited and was negligible at the Paris meeting. Since then, civil
society - including women’s organizations – has actively and effectively
sought openings and opportunities to influence the process. In Accra,
representatives of women’s groups, advocates and experts joined other civil
society organizations, prior to the High-Level Forum, to develop
recommendations that were fed into deliberations at the governments’ summit. There have been and
there will continue to be several meetings on financing for development and
aid effectiveness. Women have been tracking the money trail since the UN International Conference on Financing for
Development in Monterrey, Mexico (2002) led to an outcome document that
identified the means of ensuring financial resources to reach UN development
goals. Building on the Monterrey Consensus, the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness focused on donor commitment towards assisting developing
countries’ governments in formulating and implementing their own national
development plans. (Paris Declaration: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/41/34428351.pdf) Women-specific
perspectives and concerns were tabled through papers and presentations at an
Expert Group Meeting in Oslo (2007) and debated by governments and civil
society organizations at the heavily-attended 2008 Commission on the Status
of Women on Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – the
only policy space that is available for women to directly lobby governments.
(The commission’s Agreed
Conclusions: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw52/AC_resolutions/L.8_Advance%20unedited_as%20corrected.pdf;
Expert Group papers: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/financing_gender_equality/egm_financing_gender_equality.htm) The next opportunity for
civil society input will be the Doha Global Civil Society Forum (27 November – 28 November 2008, Doha, Qatar) taking
place before the Follow-up
International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the
Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus (29 November – 2
December 2008, Doha, Qatar) 1. ACCRA WOMEN’S FORUM – KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
THE 3rd HIGH LEVEL FORUM (HLF-3), ACCRA, GHANA While women and civil
society were not present at the HLF-2 in Paris, they attended in large
numbers at the 3rd High Level Forum (HLF-3). On August 30 more
than 200 people, including gender advocates and experts and individuals from
women's rights organizations and women's empowerment organizations, attended
the Accra International Women's Forum, co-organized by the Network for
Women’s Rights (NETRIGHT), African Women’s Development and Communication
Network (FEMNET), WIDE, International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN),
Development Action for Women Network (DAWN) and Association for Women’s
Rights in Development (AWID), with the support of the African Women
Development Fund (AWDF), Action Aid International, UNIFEM, and Urgent Action
Africa, to discuss the implementation of the Paris Declaration. The
statement, which emanated from the forum, called for the following actions
and recommendations to be taken up at the HLF-3. Key recommendations
included: · To develop an aid system that promotes democratic and sustainable agendas and supports the equitable distribution of productive resources, decent work and the provision of social security. · To fully recognize that gender equality, environmental sustainability and respect for human rights are cornerstones of development. ·
To
align the Paris Declaration with internationally agreed development goals
(IADG). ·
To
support and strengthen the capacities, resources and authority of national women's
machineries in order to better enable their ability to support and monitor
line ministries, other government bodies and parliaments in influencing
national development planning and budget allocations for gender equality and
women's rights. ·
To
deliver donors’ commitment to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA)
to 0.7% of their GNP and to provide transparent information on how ODA
allocations respond to policy commitments and people's needs. Attendees of
the Women’s Forum also called on developing country governments to provide
transparent and publicly available budgets for their citizenry. ·
To
remove economic policy conditionalities that undermine the principle of ownership and contradict
the right to development and self-determination. ·
To
ensure that special funds are available for women's rights organizations and
that resources for mobilizing communities are accessible. ·
To
pay special attention to the needs and compensation of victimized women in
fragile states (states in conflict, coming out of conflict or post-conflict
situations) and in communities experiencing localized conflicts and
xenophobia attacks by involving women in peace-building processes. ·
To
measure development results through existing reporting and monitoring
mechanisms for human rights compliance. ·
For
the full set of recommendations see http://betteraid.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213&Itemid=26 Additionally, the International CSO
Steering Group coordinated the Civil Society Parallel Forum. For the final
statement see http://betteraid.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=228&Itemid=1.
2. OUTCOME OF HLF-3 On September 4, 2008,
donor and developing countries endorsed the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA),
the outcome policy document of the HLF-3. They agreed to take steps to reform
the way aid is administered. Developing countries committed to take control
of their own futures, while donors committed to increase their coordination
efforts; both donors and developing countries pledged to be accountable to
one another and to their citizens. Key points agreed in the Accra Agenda for Action include: ·
Predictability – donors will
provide 3-5 years in advance information on their planned aid to partner
countries. ·
Country systems – partner country
systems will be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor
systems. ·
Conditionality – donors will
switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money
is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development
objectives. ·
Untying – donors will relax
restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying the goods and
services they need from whomever and wherever they can get the best quality
at the lowest price. For full document see http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ACCRAEXT/Resources/4700790-1217425866038/AAA-4-SEPTEMBER-FINAL-16h00.pdf. However, Civil
Society Organizations (CSOs), including women’s organization, have expressed
disappointment at the outcome of the meeting, which they claim does not take
into sufficient consideration civil society recommendations and preparations.
CSOs called for a number of reforms to the PD and offered important
recommendations to the content of the AAA, including the desire to see a
broader framework of development effectiveness espoused. The majority of these recommendations were
ignored: the AAA fails to address the most
essential concerns, such as democratic ownership of aid, policy conditionalities, the role of CSOs, including
women’s rights organizations, tied aid and the foreign debt burden and
instead gives excessive attention to technical procedures in aid delivery and
management. For more information see www.BetterAid.org.
3. REGISTERING FOR DOHA The Registration
Form for
the Doha Global Civil
Society Forum (27 November – 28 November 2008, Doha, Qatar)
and the Follow-up
International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the
Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus (29 November – 2
December 2008, Doha, Qatar) is now online. Non-governmental Organizations in
consultative status with ECOSOC as well as those that were granted ad hoc
accreditation to the International Conference on Financing on Development (ICFfD) or its follow-up process are eligible to apply for
the two events cited above. Organizations without previous accreditation that
applied for ad hoc accreditation to the Doha Review Conference before the
deadline of 31 August 2008 are welcome to register, but confirmation will
only be issued if the General Assembly approves the accreditation request. Completed
registration forms must be received by 17 October 2008. Under no
circumstances can applications be considered after 17 October.
Confirmation of participation will be issued by 27 October 2008. For more information, and to apply, please visit http://www.un-ngls.org/ffd/. For more
information on the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for
Development, please visit http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha/ 4. MEASURING PROGRESS OF THE PARIS
DECLARATION The
PD sets out 12 indicators to provide a measurable and evidence-based
way to track progress: 1.
Partners have operational development
strategies; 2.
Reliable country systems; 3.
Aid flows are aligned on national
priorities; 4.
Strengthen capacity by
coordinated support; 5.
Use of country public financial
management systems and country procurement system; 6.
Strengthen capacity by avoiding parallel
implementation structures; 7.
Aid is more predictable; 8.
Aid is untied; 9.
Use of common arrangements
or procedures; 10.
Encourage shared analysis; 11.
Result-oriented framework; 12.
Mutual accountability. Targets have been set
for 11 of the indicators for the year 2010 when the PD is to be implemented.
For full document see http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/60/36080258.pdf. Additionally a survey on
Monitoring the Paris Declaration was launched in January 2008 http://www.oecd.org/document/33/0,3343,en_21571361_39494699_39497377_1_1_1_1,00.html
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