From the MDGs to the Accra Forum: towards greater international aid effectiveness
Following the 1990s, which were marked by a considerable drop in ODA, the international community renewed its commitment to development during a series of international conferences.
In 2000 191 States gathered for the Millennium Summit organized by the United Nations in New York for a major common project: to reject the inevitability of poverty. They pledged to meet eight development goals by 2015.
Two years later the international community adopted the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development which identified six additional axes for maximizing financial flows for development:
- Mobilizing domestic financial resources for development;
- Mobilizing international resources for development: foreign direct investment and other private flows;
- International trade as an engine for development;
- Increasing international financial and technical cooperation for development;
- Reducing external debt;
- Addressing systemic issues: enhancing the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development.
G8 countries pledged to scale up their development aid during the Gleneagles Summit in 2005 and agreed to new debt cancellations for the most heavily indebted countries, in addition to previous cancellations in 1996 and 1999.
During the same year 90 countries and international organizations signed the Paris Declaration.
By adopting the Declaration donors from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and partner countries pledged to make aid more effective. It includes 12 targets for 2010 and is based on five principles:
- Aid ownership by developing countries
- Alignment of aid interventions with national development strategies
- Harmonization of interventions
- Results-based management of aid
- Mutual accountability on results achieved
This Declaration led to the French Action Plan which aims to build the capacities of partner countries, strengthen partnerships for aid programming and enhance management procedures.
During the Luxembourg Summit in 2005, European Union Member States pledged to allocate 50% of their aid increases to the African continent. A European consensus on development policy also defines the priorities, principles and methods of a European strategy for development cooperation based on common values among EU members. It focuses on the quantity and quality of aid, policy coherence and the integration of global challenges. It is firmly in line with the spirit of the Paris Declaration and Monterrey Consensus, two processes where the EU was instrumental in their adoption.
These commitments bear upon both the amounts mobilized (Gleneagles Summit, EU target to raise its Official Development Assistance to 0.7% of GNI by 2015) and improving effectiveness (Paris Declaration, European Code of Conduct on the Division of Labour). Africa, for its part, should benefit from 50% of aid increases (G8). This commitment comes in addition to one taken back in 1990 to allocate 0.15% of donor countries’ GNI to Least Developed Countries.
In 2008 this mobilization is more than ever before high on the agenda. The Accra Forum which will be held from 2 to 4 September will take stock of these commitments pending the New York MDG meetings on Africa’s needs and, especially, the Doha Conference on Financing for Development.
>> Find out more about the Accra Forum
Millennium Summit
In 2000 191 States gathered for the Millennium Summit organized by the United Nations in New York for a major common project: to reject the inevitability of poverty. They pledged to meet eight development goals by 2015 >> Find out more about the MDGs
Monterrey Consensus
Two objectives were identified:
- To scale up financial resources allocated to Official Development Assistance (ODA)
- To enhance the harmonization and coordination of procedures and policies for greater aid effectiveness
>> Find out more about the Monterrey Conference
Paris Declaration
The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was adopted by donor countries and developing countries during the High Level Forum. It sets out some fifty commitments to improve the quality of aid.
>> Find out more about the implementation of the Paris Declaration
Accra Forum on Aid Effectiveness
Ministers from over 100 countries, heads of bilateral and multilateral agencies, donors and many international solidarity organizations gathered in Accra from 2 to 4 September 2008 for a High Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness
>> Find out more on this event
>> Accra Agenda for Action website
3 questions to Pierre Jacquet
Over 1,000 policy-makers from North and South countries gathered at the “High-Level Forum” in Accra, Ghana from 2 to 4 September 2008 with the aim of improving development aid effectiveness. Pierre Jacquet, Chief Economist at AFD, answers to three questions.
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