An examination of bilateral donor performance and progress under the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiagadeesen Samy ◽  
Marje Aksli
Keyword(s):  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Bilateral Donor

scholarly journals Strengthening the Effectiveness of Aid Delivery in Teacher Education: A Fiji Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Donasiano Kalou Ruru
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
National Development ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
The Pacific

<p>As a result of increasing development challenges and higher aid allocations to the Pacific, questions of aid effectiveness have become increasingly important. Efforts to professionalise aid delivery tools have been accompanied by debates over whether delivery tools are effective and compatible with more democratic and empowering relationships with beneficiaries. My research examines the effectiveness of international aid to teacher development, using the AusAID funded projects at Lautoka Teachers' College as a case study and the Fiji College of Advanced Education as background study. The conditions governing aid delivery mechanisms are explored, including logical frameworks, participatory processes, and financial probity. These conditions have been drawn from the 'Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness' and each is considered to be critical if aid effectiveness is to be enhanced and the investment sustained. Based on participatory research methodology, carried out through 'talanoa sessions', semià à ¢ structured interviews, and analysis of programme documents, the study explored the extent to which aid programmes and management practices are constrained by donor conditions, succeed in meeting their stated aims, and what sort of unintended consequences are generated. Further, the research identified how aid can best improve future aid to the Fiji education system through its delivery, impact and sustainability for national development, as laid out in the Pacific Principles of Aid Effectiveness The study also highlights the growing convergence between the 'aid donors' interests' and 'aid recipients' needs'. The debate on this relationship is necessary to reinvigorate thinking on the effectiveness of aid delivery for Fiji. The study draws up a practical framework, an aid bure designed as a heuristic device to assess the effectiveness of aid delivery for Fiji. The model may also be relevant to the wider Pacific context, and contribute to the global quest for a concrete guide to best practice which above all will continue to foster more sensitive, effective and enduring links between recipient countries and international aid donors.</p>

scholarly journals Ownership, Decentralization and Development in Papua New Guinea: Sub National Participation in Aid Effectiveness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Edward Kapi
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Decentralized System ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
High Level

<p><b>The debate on aid effectiveness and ineffectiveness continues to remain as a core issue for international development. The endorsement of the Paris Declaration on the principles of aid effectiveness in March 2005 by states and international agencies was a significant milestone in this regard. This declaration involved specific commitments for donors and partner countries and marked a paradigm shift for improving aid effectiveness. The overall aim was to improve the quality of aid and its impact on development and, in particular, recipient countries taking ownership of their development. The ownership principle has been echoed and reaffirmed in the subsequent series of high level forums on aid effectiveness.</b></p> <p>This thesis provides a critical examination of Papua New Guinea’s commitment to aid effectiveness. It examines and analyses aid and development effectiveness at the subnational levels of government. It finds that there is a substantial disjunction between national and subnational levels of government with regard to development ownership. This is demonstrated in current policies and practices, and it largely echoes studies elsewhere in the Pacific region on aid and development. However, in this wider literature, there is little evidence on important policy issues regarding leadership and effective aid and development coordination in a decentralized system of government, and this is where Papua New Guinea (PNG) offers some important new insights. This thesis argues that the subnational levels of government continue to remain isolated from the aid effectiveness discussion despite development ownership efforts and government objectives to practice ownership and leadership through all tiers of government.</p>

scholarly journals Cultivating Ownership of Development Aid: The Role of Civil Society in the Pacific

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Pedram Pirnia
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Donor States

<p>The principle of ownership and the idea that development aid should be owned by recipients has emerged within the last two decades in key statements from a series of international meetings between major donors and partners, most prominently since the 2005 Paris Declaration when ‘ownership of development aid’ became the first Principle of Aid Effectiveness. The principle was applauded particularly by the governments of rich donor states, but also by their specialist aid agencies and representatives of civil society. However, despite the endorsement and praise of the principle of ownership by all donors and stakeholders, confusion and lack of clarity remains as to what exactly ownership of development aid means especially in terms of policy and practice in the work of development actors.  The core proposal of this thesis is that the principle of recipient ownership of development aid, apparently so important at the highest international levels of discussion, must be defined, broken down into relevant ingredients, taken into consideration in terms of policy and practice, and measured. Otherwise, the principle is nothing but empty rhetoric. It is logical to suggest that to have any policy value political concepts should be definable and measureable. Hence, the thesis argues that if one can formulate the relevant ingredients of ownership, one can carefully investigate factors that increase or decrease those ingredients. This is the focus of this thesis.  Field research in the Pacific Islands used a mixed methodology that included gathering data on completed development projects and interviewing government officials, major donor officials, other deliverers of aid – particularly the civil society organisations (CSOs) – and especially the project beneficiaries at the grassroots. Projects where CSOs demonstrated particularly close engagement with the communities and beneficiaries were chosen as case studies. Analysing and deconstructing these mechanics and ingredients of ownership produced a new definition for ‘ownership of development aid’ and a range of variables for an Ownership Index and for Ownership Guidelines. These combined tools presented in this research should assist professionals to promote, cultivate and measure ownership of development outcomes that project beneficiaries will maintain, protect and improve over time.</p>

Staff Operational Guidelines on Dissemination of Technical Assistance Information

Policy Papers ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 09 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
The Public ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Legitimate Interest

TA information should be disseminated more widely. The more active sharing of TA information with donors and other TA providers will improve coordination, exploit synergies, and enable the Fund to prioritize and leverage its limited TA resources, thereby fulfilling key objectives under the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Moreover, especially from the perspective of their own accountability to their governments and legislators, donors to the Fund’s TA program have a legitimate interest in receiving information on TA that is financed by them. For TA recipient countries, the wider dissemination of TA information among different government agencies will strengthen ownership and facilitate the more effective implementation of TA recommendations. More generally, through publication, the membership and the public at large will benefit from a better understanding of best practices, and the Fund’s experiences in the provision of TA.

scholarly journals Strengthening the Effectiveness of Aid Delivery in Teacher Education: A Fiji Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Donasiano Kalou Ruru
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
National Development ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
The Pacific

<p>As a result of increasing development challenges and higher aid allocations to the Pacific, questions of aid effectiveness have become increasingly important. Efforts to professionalise aid delivery tools have been accompanied by debates over whether delivery tools are effective and compatible with more democratic and empowering relationships with beneficiaries. My research examines the effectiveness of international aid to teacher development, using the AusAID funded projects at Lautoka Teachers' College as a case study and the Fiji College of Advanced Education as background study. The conditions governing aid delivery mechanisms are explored, including logical frameworks, participatory processes, and financial probity. These conditions have been drawn from the 'Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness' and each is considered to be critical if aid effectiveness is to be enhanced and the investment sustained. Based on participatory research methodology, carried out through 'talanoa sessions', semià à ¢ structured interviews, and analysis of programme documents, the study explored the extent to which aid programmes and management practices are constrained by donor conditions, succeed in meeting their stated aims, and what sort of unintended consequences are generated. Further, the research identified how aid can best improve future aid to the Fiji education system through its delivery, impact and sustainability for national development, as laid out in the Pacific Principles of Aid Effectiveness The study also highlights the growing convergence between the 'aid donors' interests' and 'aid recipients' needs'. The debate on this relationship is necessary to reinvigorate thinking on the effectiveness of aid delivery for Fiji. The study draws up a practical framework, an aid bure designed as a heuristic device to assess the effectiveness of aid delivery for Fiji. The model may also be relevant to the wider Pacific context, and contribute to the global quest for a concrete guide to best practice which above all will continue to foster more sensitive, effective and enduring links between recipient countries and international aid donors.</p>

scholarly journals Siutakahe'ahoafā: Navigating the Kingdom of Tonga's national development priorities under international aid.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faka'iloatonga Taumoefolau
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
International Development ◽  
National Development ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
The Political ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
High Level

<p><b>The title of this thesis - Siutaka he ‘aho afā – is interpreted as ‘Day storm voyager’. This title encapsulates the journeys undertaken by the Kingdom of Tonga as it navigates the ocean of international development and the frequent challenges or ‘storms’ it encounters. This research seeks to understand better how Tonga articulates and pursues its national development priorities in the context of international aid. It focuses in particular on Country Programmable Aid to Tonga from Australia and New Zealand in the years 2013-17 and how the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness Principles are applied to Tonga. The main research question addressed is: ‘To what extent are the national development priorities of Tonga shaped or supported by international aid?’ </b></p><p>The research is qualitative in approach and is composed of two sources of data: from in-depth interviews with a range of both Tongan and donor officials; and analysis of key aid and development documents. It examines the political and administrative context of Tonga, highlighting the political environment, changing leadership and the direction set by its strategic goals for development. It then looks in detail at the aid activities of, respectively, Australia and New Zealand, and analyses their various priorities and ways of operating. </p><p>The research uses the five Paris Declaration principles for aid effectiveness as a framework to analyse the way aid relationships and interactions occurred in Tonga over the period. There was generally high-level support for the Paris principles and these supported the idea that the Government of Tonga should ‘own’ its development, by drafting and implementing its development priorities and strategies. This was supported by agreement to abide by the principles of alignment with Tongan systems and Harmonisation amongst donors as well as pursuing practices which enhanced results-based management and accountability. However, in the details of daily interactions and practices, we also saw how these high-level agreements were often diluted or confused. Although Tonga had its own set of priorities, donors continued to choose which of these they would fund, according to their own strategic goals and concerns. Furthermore, given significant issues of capacity to operate effectively in the aid environment, with much onus on Tongan officials and agencies to provide data, report on progress, consult with the public and engage closely with donors, we saw how Tonga often struggled to exert strong and consistent leadership and control of aid-supported development. </p><p>In drawing broader conclusions, the Paris Declaration is found to be a step in the right direction for improving the effectiveness of foreign aid to Tonga. However, what determines the likelihood of effectiveness is multifaceted, and dependent on will, need, and, perhaps most importantly, on Tonga’s leadership. It is found that the most fundamental factor for Tonga – both a unique challenge and a strength - is the enduring resilience of our culture together with our leadership code. </p>

scholarly journals Bypassing Government: Aid Effectiveness and Malawi’s Local Development Fund

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Chasukwa ◽  
Dan Banik
Keyword(s):  
Local Development ◽  
Recipient Country ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Development Fund ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Budget Support ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Impact

Many practical and action-oriented international roadmaps to improve the quality of aid and its delivery and impact on development—including the Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda for Action, and Busan Partnership—emphasize a more active involvement of domestic institutions and procedures. Despite widespread agreement among both donor and recipient countries on this issue, we find that aid often tends to bypass national institutional structures. This practice is sometimes justified on grounds of high levels of political and administrative corruption and weak implementation capacity in recipient country bureaucracies. We examine how and to what extent multilateral and bilateral development agencies bypass national and local government institutions while channeling aid and the impact of such practices on aid effectiveness in Africa. Based on an empirical study of project aid and budget support provided to Malawi by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the German Economic Group, we argue that earmarked funding, specialized procurement arrangements, and the proliferation of Project Management Units are among the mechanisms used to circumvent the involvement of national institutions. We conclude that while such practices may achieve short-term gains by displaying successful and visible ‘donorship’, the long-term impact is more uncertain. The bypassing of local institutions results in fragmentation of aid, lack of coordination among aid industry actors, and a general weakening of policy space and domestic capacity to formulate and implement development policy.

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