euforic aid effectiveness

The Impact of Global Crises, Trade Finance and Aid on Export Flows: A Developing Country Perspective

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:04 GMT

"In this paper, we use a mixed-effects trade gravity model on a sample of 83 developing countries over the period 1990-2007 to assess the impact of trade finance and foreign aid on bilateral export flows. In addition to traditional variables, we also include a banking crises variable and a global economic downturns variable among the regressors. Differences across developing regions are taken into account. Our results suggest that: (i) trade finance has a positive and significant impact on bilateral export flows in all developing regions except Latin America; (ii) foreign aid matters in all regions; (iii) global economic downturns exert a negative and significant impact on export flows in all developing countries, and especially in Latin American and Sub-Saharan African economies; (iv) banking crises appear to have no significant impact in most developing regions.(2011/11 - Danish Institute for International Studies - DIIS)

http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=6014&title=busan-fragile-states-aid-effectiveness-managing-donor-risk

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:08 GMT

"Since the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra in 2008, there has been a growing awareness amongst the international community that low-income countries with fragile institutions are not simply more difficult cases of development, but require a fundamentally different approach to delivering development assistance. In most cases, however, the way in which assistance has been provided follows the same procedures and uses the same approaches to assessing and managing fiduciary risks that are applied to stable countries." (2011/10 - Overseas Development Institute - ODI)

Aid effectiveness: bringing country ownership (and politics) back in

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:31 GMT

"The 2005 Paris Declaration grew out of a consensus on the importance of ‘country ownership’ to the success of development efforts. In other words, it came to be recognised that the effectiveness of aid depends critically on whether or not a country’s leadership is really committed to development. The obvious question arising, then and now, is: how can international actors support the emergence of country-owned development efforts? Since Paris and Accra, however, attention has been focused on a subtly different question. The assumption is tacitly made that most countries already have development-oriented political leaderships. This paper considers that assumption untenable and agrees with those arguing that ownership should be treated as a desirable outcome, not an achieved state of affairs. It then asks the corresponding question: whether external actors have any useful role in assisting the emergence of developmental country leaderships.(...) (2011/08 - ODI)

International Development - Bill Morton: Partnerships Key to Aid Effectiveness

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:52 GMT

70.7 million € less for EU development aid in 2012. 29 April 2011. CTA.

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:02 GMT

For Ivory Coast’s Recovery, AFD Pledges More Than $500M. 18 April 2011. Devex.

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:01 GMT

Netherlands calls for more effectiveness in EU aid projects. 29 April 2011. CTA.

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:00 GMT

EDC 2020 - Final Event - Europe's role

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:07 GMT

EDC2020 event: Post Lisbon: How to achieve coherence between energy security and development policies

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:51 GMT

Mitchell: Aid agencies to focus on value for money. DFID. 23 December 2010.

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:36 GMT

Ethiopia: the Aid-Politics Trap. Human Rights Watch. 23 November 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

Ethiopia is the largest recipient of western development assistance in Africa. In 2005-08, aid to Ethiopia more than doubled - from $1.9 billion to $3.4 billion. Yet the country's domestic politics are becoming less democratic and more repressive. Could there be a link between aid and repression? That's a question Human Rights Watch has set out to answer in recent months; and a report published on 19 October 2010 gives an unsettling answer. In the course of several months' research involving interviews with over 200 people in three regions of Ethiopia and the capital Addis Ababa, we uncovered evidence that multi-billion dollar programmes funded by the World Bank and others have been politicised and manipulated by the Ethiopian government and are used as a powerful tool of political control and repression.

Aid Effectiveness Conference: Africa’s Future Lies in Self-Reliance. African Development Bank. 11 November 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

Distinguished delegates drawn from African governments, international organizations, parliaments and civil society agreed on Friday, 5 November 2010 in Tunis that the time had come for African countries to rely more on their internal resources; such as taxation, the capital markets and better prices for their valuable commodities, and less on international aid for development. The second Regional Meeting on Aid Effectiveness, jointly organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union and NEPAD, convened on 4 and 5 February 2010, in preparation for the fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to be held in Busan, Korea, in November 2011.

What right does the west have to lecture and hector on aid? Guardian. 09 November 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

There is no doubt the current climate presents an opportunity for reflection on how the west engages with resource-poor societies. We all know the stories of failed aid projects and wasted money, so it must now be time for the development worldto stand back and try to focus on the often blurred lines between self-interest and moral obligation. Given that the very core of the financial crisis originated in the developed world, we have to ask ourselves whether the west deserves an opinion at all within resource-poor societies?

Gov’t, UN Agree 2.3m People Need Emergency Aid. Addis Fortune. 29 November 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

Just two months after Human Rights Watch accused Ethiopia of misusing aid money for political means, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (MoARD) Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) announced that 2.3 million people are in need of emergency food assistance. The figure in the Humanitarian Requirement Document (HDR) released by the DRMFSS coincided with that of the United Nations (UN) Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This was announced at a joint press conference held on Wednesday, November 23, 2010, inside the compound of the DRMFSS office. This is, perhaps, the first time in a long time that reports about people in need of emergency food assistance carried the same message from the government and international agencies.

Chinese aid to Africa in the spotlight.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

CHINA’S approach to humanitarian assistance to African countries is set to shape aid architecture on the continent at a time inflows are projected to dwindle, a senior official with the African Development Bank (AfDB) said last week. The Asian economic giant has been accused of ignoring human rights violations in countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan, where it continues to pour in millions in aid every year. China says it is neutral when it comes to governance issues and its aid programmes mainly hinge on exchange between preferential resource extraction arrangements, mining deals and tradeoffs among others.

Brazil: an emerging aid player. ODI. October 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

Emerging aid donors, such as China, India and, increasingly, Brazil, are changing the international aid architecture and challenging some of its tenets, such as the current consensus on ‘aid effectiveness’. Once, aid flowed in one direction from the richest industrialised nations to the developing world – a strict ‘North to South’ aid stream. Things are now more complex, with aid moving across the South, and old definitions of developed and developing losing their meaning.

Institute of Development Studies on: What Should Drive UK Aid to Developing Countries?

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:48 GMT

"Results and Analysis from the UK Public Opinion Monitor. The UK Public Opinion Monitor (UKPOM) is a longitudinal panel of approximately 6,000 people from across the UK that is broadly representative of the demographic make-up of the UK population by gender, age, level of education and region. Members of the panel receive an internet-based survey every six to eight weeks. This report presents a summary of results drawn from the fourth UKPOM survey, undertaken during October 2010." (2010/12 - IDS)

Mutual Accountability and Transparency : A Fourth Chapter for the EU Operational Framework on Aid Effectiveness – Council Conclusions. Council of the European Union. 10 December 2010.

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:47 GMT

EADI Masterclass: Practical Skills for Conducting Impact Evaluations, 4 - 5 November 2010

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:59 GMT

Parliamentarians Schooled on Aid Effectiveness. Ghana Government Official Portal. 06 October 2010.

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:53 GMT

Parliament is considering the enactment of a Budget Law and the establishment of a Budget Office within it to help engage the Executive at various stages of the Budget cycle. The workshop follows a high level forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Accra in 2008 dubbed: “The Accra Agenda for Action” where Ministers of developing countries responsible for promoting development and heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions endorsed statements to accelerate and deepen the implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Honourable Doe Adjaho, stated this in a speech read on his behalf in Accra, yesterday, at a workshop organised by Parliament in collaboration with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA), on Aid Effectiveness themed, “Implementation of Accra Agenda for Action –Role and perspectives of Parliament of Ghana.”

EU aid commissioner wants to streamline crisis response after Pakistan

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:31 GMT

10.09.2010 - Deutsche Welle

More development aid channeled through the banks as UN is increasingly sidelined, OECD Report finds

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:10 GMT

08.09.2010 - Eurodad

Stories from Aidland / Special Reports /

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:44 GMT

"Policy makers are good at thinking up policies for all sorts of development problems. But what happens to them in the process of implementation? Why is it that some policies are successful, while others simply fail? This new series will examine the daily practice of development, focusing on specific policies and projects in order to identify the real obstacles to improving the effectiveness of aid. " (July 2010 - The Broker)

OECD Trade Policy Working Paper: Lessons from Trade Reforms for the Design of Aid for Trade

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:45 GMT

"This OECD Trade Policy Working Paper argues that the scope of activity of aid-for-trade is broad enough to support the compatible policies that will make the reform sustainable and the complementary policies that will increase its growth impact. Supporting compatible and complementary policies is about policy coherence and adequate sequencing. In order to reach its objective, Aid for Trade should not only focus on helping developing countries to turn trade opportunities into trade but also tackle the binding constraints that choke the impact of trade on economic growth. " (July 2010 - ECDPM)

Danish Institute for International Studies on: Donors and Agro-food standards

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:38 GMT

"A large number of donors have supported projects and programmes to improve the capacity of developing countries to conform to the current generation of international agro-food standards. However, research carried out jointly by DIIS and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania suggests that the impacts of these activities have been limited." ( 2010/07 DIIS)

Aid agencies face growing hostility from Pakistani flood victims

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:33 GMT

02.09.2010 - Deutsche Welle

U.N. Steps Up Pressure to Raise Funds for Pakistan

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:07 GMT

20.08.2010 - IPS ipsnews.net

Irene A Kuntjoro on Pakistan’s Floods: How Not to be Caught Off Guard

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:00 GMT

"OFFICIAL RECORDS show that the unfolding flood disaster in Pakistan has led to the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and affected over 15.4 million lives. (...) This fact has largely been blamed on the unprecedented intensity of the monsoon rains. However, it has highlighted serious shortcomings in the state’s disaster response system known as the National Disaster Management Framework (NDMF). " (23.08.2010 - RSIS Commentaries)

The death of generosity

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:25 GMT

10.08.2010 - (ANSA-Africa)

Silke Weinlich on the reform of the United Nations

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:20 GMT

"In early July 2010 the United Nations (UN) created a new Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – to be known as UN WOMEN. It also adopted important resolutions aimed at improving the UN organisations' development cooperation. The first you've heard of it? That is a shame because these achievements show that the organisation is capable of instituting reform and that multilateral action among 192 countries remains possible." (DIE, 23 July 2010)

Europe sends 30 million for Pakistan flood relief effort

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:32 GMT

02.08.2010 - Deutsche Welle

ECOSOC Side Event – New Actors in Development Cooperation and the New Aid Architecture: the Role of Regional Governments and Local Authorities (29 June 2010)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:17 GMT

22.07.2010 - United Nations - Non-governmental Liaison Service

Samuel Moon and Zachary Mills on Aligning Aid Information with Recipient County Budgets

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:10 GMT

"The Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action emphasise the importance of aligning aid with recipient government priorities and delivering aid through government systems. However, since a significant amount of aid is not delivered through national budgets, the issue of aligning these resources to government systems remains a major challenge. A fundamental concern is the ability to relate aid resources to the expenditure patterns of recipient governments." ( 2010/07)

Alison Evans on: Returning to first principles – why give aid to some countries and not to others?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:07 GMT

"The debate over whether the UK should continue providing development assistance to India is not new, but it has become a lightning rod for those who argue that the UK aid programme has lost its way. In reflecting on the specifics of the case it is worth reminding ourselves about some of the broader arguments about aid allocation. " ( 20.07.2010 - ODI Blog)

"Everything but Arms Deal Doesn’t Benefit Enough People"

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:32 GMT

15.07.2010 - IPS ipsnews.net

ODI on Global Funds: Allocation Strategies and Aid Effectiveness

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:58 GMT

" This report, commissioned by the UK Department for International Development's (DFID) International Director's Office (IDO), looks at two closely related sets of aid effectiveness issues: how global funds allocate their funds among proposals and countries and the impact this has on Paris/Accra principles of aid effectiveness; and how they deal with predictability, sustainability and capacity aspects of alignment." (14.07.2010 - ECDPM Weekly Compass)

EU and ACP non-state actors insist on food security as a human right

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:27 GMT

14.07.2010 - CTA - Brussels Office Weblog -

EU Development Commissioner meets Secretary-General

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:16 GMT

15.07.2010 - CTA - Brussels Office Weblog

Haiti: Aid effort six months on

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:39 GMT

10.07.2010 - BBC News

Masterclass: Complexity in development related projects and evaluation

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:57 GMT

In recent years there has been a much greater acceptance of the idea that social development does not proceed according to the logical framework: it is complex, messy and emergent. What methods might evaluators use to make greater sense of what has happened and what is happening in development programmes in a way that does greater justice to the complexity of development? How might we escape the simple dualism of asking whether the programme/project is successful or not? How might we take greater account of the role of the evaluator in what they are evaluating?

Masterclass on Complexity in Project Management and Evaluation 16 - 17 September 2010, Bonn

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:47 GMT

ODI on Practical approaches to the aid effectiveness agenda

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:18 GMT

"The Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action emphasise the importance of aligning aid with recipient government priorities and delivering aid through government systems. However, since a significant amount of aid is not delivered through national budgets, the issue of aligning these resources to government systems remains a major challenge. (...) At the core of this problem is the need to produce aid information in a way that can be aligned with the administrative/organisational classification and the functional/purpose classification of a recipient government’s budget." July 2010 - ODI)

2010 European Aid Report: Read how EU's action helps the poorest countries to develop

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:33 GMT

"The European Commission adopted today its Annual Report 2010 on the implementation of EU's development and external assistance policies in 2009. Programmes and projects led by the Commission reached around 140 developing countries." (28.06.2010 - Europa Press Releases)

UK to cut foreign aid to 'rich' India

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:17 GMT

12.07.2010 - The Times of India

China Moves from Aid Recipient to Aid Donor

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:02 GMT

09.07.2010 - IPS ipsnews.net

FRIDE on Revitalising Democracy Assistance

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:02 GMT

"Despite claims to the contrary, demand for democracy is on the rise. In recent years, democracy assistance has increased but its results have been far from impressive. (...) A new FRIDE project on "Revitalising Democracy Assistance" offers advice on how to improve both donor and local stakeholder practices." (30.06.2010 - FRIDE)

Government may withdraw billions from overseas projects

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:25 GMT

09.06.2010 - The Independent

Maximising the impact of ‘Aid for Trade’ support

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:24 GMT

18.06.2010 - ECDPM Weekly Compass

German development minister: Development aid builds peace

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:23 GMT

"Gaza is, in fact, a problem zone when it comes to development aid. We are there working with our own state agencies on the ground, especially in the field of emergency and transitional assistance." (24.06.2010 - Deutsche Welle)

Aid budget to be refocused to deliver better results for world’s poorest

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:22 GMT

16.06.2010 - DFID