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Aid Commitments for Development Should Be Honoured

16 February 2006

AID COMMITMENTS FOR DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE HONOURED
"Far too much aid -- particularly bilateral aid -- continues to be motivated by political rather than developmental objectives; and is supply driven rather than country-led."
Commitments made by developed countries to increase official development assistance (ODA) need to be translated into money spent wisely and well on the ground in developing countries, said the Commonwealth Secretary-General in a speech delivered at the Overseas Development Institute in London, UK, on 9 February 2006. Mr McKinnon expressed concern that some countries which had pledged aid during the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, UK, in July 2005, might not honour those commitments. He also pointed out the current lack of capacity of both donors and recipients to expend the increased aid efficiently and effectively.

"Far too much aid -- particularly bilateral aid -- continues to be motivated by political rather than developmental objectives; and is supply driven rather than country-led. There is a strong case for direct budgetary support to overcome these drawbacks. The Rome and Paris Declarations on aid harmonisation and alignment must be implemented. And aid policy must be customised to local conditions."

The Secretary-General stressed the importance of improving international 'aid architecture' to better manage aid. He also pointed out the need, for instance, for a forum to enable developing countries to share their views on this.

"Is the current 65/35 per cent between bilateral and multilateral aid appropriate?" asked the Secretary-General. "What should be the respective roles among the multilateral aid agencies? These and other questions need to be addressed. The new aid architecture will also need to incorporate new donors such as China and India."

Mr McKinnon expressed concern that the commitments of donor countries are still well below the 0.7 per cent target of gross national income. Aid, debt and trade are all critical elements of international development assistance, and the debt cancellation breakthrough last year was a major advance, he said. But the Secretary-General cautioned that a number of implementation issues need to be resolved and efforts made to ensure that the beneficiary countries do not regress in future.

Trade liberalisation and export-led growth have the potential to bring millions of people out of poverty, Mr McKinnon emphasised.

"The unprecedented success in reducing poverty in East and South-East Asia was driven by rapid growth in international trade, and also enabled by building capacity through education and skills, as well as stability and predictability in economic policy and the political environment. The difficulty for many developing countries is that the current international trade system generates asymmetrical outcomes, making potential benefits hard to sustain. That is why the Doha Round is so important."

In his speech on 'Building Democratic and Accountable States' the Secretary-General also stressed the importance of strong and effective states that are accountable to their people. He noted that the separation of powers between parliament, the judiciary and the executive is a key building block of democracy. The development of a democratic culture on such a foundation is equally important so as to promote active engagement and involvement of citizens in dialogue and the decision-making process.

Mr McKinnon stated that the Commonwealth is a major player in continuing to build developmental, democratic and accountable states through responsible citizens, governments and the collective engagement of the international community.

The full text of the speech is available at http://www.thecommonwealth.org/.

 


CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 272, 15 February 2006

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