| Busan, the bitter-sweet taste |
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The emerging powers added new impetus to the aid effectiveness agenda, acting under a ‘’new global partnership’’, as the civil society representatives called them. Apart from this pivotal role played in the reform process by the BRICS countries and South Korea, the fourth high level forum has seen for the first time a strongly coordinated African voice. “We are going to Busan with a common position, reflecting our own vision and priorities on effective development and what that means for aid reforms”, commented Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). “We are gearing up to guarantee that the outcome of Busan is in line with these principles and advances Africa’s effective development”, he added. To this end, Africa’s priority focuses on unfinished aid effectiveness agenda, capacity building for development effectiveness and South-South cooperation. NEPAD is an African Union strategic framework for pan-African socio-economic development, to address poverty, development and Africa's marginalization internationally. The CEO also pointed to the latest OECD reports which show African countries doing well in honouring aid effectiveness commitments from the Paris and Accra forums but also how donors have failed to keep their promises. “We are urging development partners to meet outstanding promises that make aid flows predictable and to deliver it in a coordinated way, aligned with country systems and processes,” he added. Five fundamental principles have been set out to make aid more effective: ownership (developing countries are responsible for their development strategies), alignment (donor countries align to these strategies), harmonization (donor countries coordinate and simply aid procedures), results, and mutual accountability. The level of aid at stake has been estimated by the OECD to be $129billion a year, a figure which does not include money from private foundations or countries like China. CSOs, present in Busan expressed their regrets that the deal reached was not binding for all the donor countries. They criticized its lack of a rights-based approach, especially on gender. Sources:
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From 29 November until 1 December, Busan, South Korea has seen thousands coming from around the globe to the fourth high level international forum on aid effectiveness. Following the forum in Rome (2002), Paris (2005) and Accra (2008), Busan has changed the game by finding agreement on the UK sponsored International Aid Transparency Initiative. This will come as a complementary source to the OECD-DAC system and will consist of a registry assembling all aid information from governments, NGOs and foundations with new standards for measuring aid.
