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High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness
From Rome Declaration to Paris Declaration
In February 2003, ministers, heads of aid agencies and senior officials representing 28 aid agencies and 47 bilateral and multilateral development institutions met in Rome for the First High-Level Forum on Harmonization to reaffirm commitment to eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development.
From 28th February to 2nd March 2005, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, OECD/DAC, and the UN, sponsored the "Second High Level Forum on Joint Progress Toward Enhanced Aid Effectiveness" in Paris, hosted by the French government.
| "In 2005, poverty and development are the issues of the year. Aid flows to developing countries are on the increase after a sustained drop for many years. So we must demonstrate that we are using that aid effectively. This will give people the confidence that aid helps the poorest people in the world, and that more aid is a sound investment in all our futures." Richard Manning, Chair, OECD's Development Assistance Committee. |
Over 500 representatives at all levels from 91 countries, 26 bilateral and multilateral agencies and 14 civil society organizations gathered to assess progress in implementation of the Rome Declaration on Harmonization; identify ways to accelerate implementation, alignment, and management for greater effectiveness in supporting the MDGs; and strengthen political support.
The participants recognized that challenges to achieving harmonization of effective aid lay with donors and donor agencies, as well as recipients. These include: international politics, frameworks of aid, and financial mechanisms; multi- and bilateral agency coordination; and effective project and program implementation, good governance, and elimination of corruption by recipients.
Although these issues have been recognized, it is now up to the international community to step forward and resolve them so that the MDGs, among others, can be achieved.
Civil society
This forum was articulated that civil society representatives and parliamentarians actively participated.
Hideyuki Takahashi, Director, Resource Development and Campaign, JOICFP, and Vice-chair, JANIC, addressed the forum on the need for aid to reach those who needed it most. At present, he said, aid was mainly distributed through government channels that contained several local government levels with insufficient function, thereby aid for community people is not fully ensured to reaching people at the grassroots.
Takahashi stated that in order for the MDGs that are so closely related to the importance of aid reaching at grassroots, the participation of NGOs in ODA would have to be substantially increased, and consequently it contribute to strengthening program sustainability and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the limited amount of aid in the world. One of the unfortunate situations of the aid is that, when the funding stopped, the project and program at grassroots collapsed that have to be changed for improving the aid effectiveness in worldwide.
He finished by saying that the voices of people at the grassroots needed to be carefully listened to as they were still saying that many people of the developing countries are not benefited although the total amount of ODA increased to approximately US$ 70 billion at present from US$ 50 billion a couple of years ago.
The forum issued the Paris Declaration, which has some 50 commitments to improving aid quality that will be monitored by twelve indicators. Participants agreed to finalize targets before the U N five-year review of the MDGs in September.
(I cannot find any information about Obaid at the forum)
 06-FINALPARISDECLARATION.pdf
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