Governments and
international institutions have agreed on the Accra Agenda for Action, with the aim of making development aid more effective.
Accra actions
“The actions agreed are not guided
sufficiently by concrete targets and timelines”, noted Vagn Berthelsen, the President of Alliance2015 and director of IBIS. “We have talked about conditionality and tied aid for years, and we have argued strongly for firm commitments but did not get
them.”
Counteracting price crisis
A focus must be the untying of the current food price crisis from food aid. According to Alliance2015, the EU could show political leadership by
using one billion euro of unspent funds from the Common Agricultural Policy budget to alleviate the food price crisis for those being most affected.
Stronger voice
“A positive
step is the broader notion of country ownership, meaning that civil society has an important voice. Their independent role has clearly been acknowledged which is not always to the pleasure of
governments”, remarked Birgit-Dederichs-Bain from Welthungerhilfe.
Pushing the agenda
The European Union, the largest donor with 60%
of overall development aid, is taking a lead in Accra and beyond, pushing the issues highlighted by the Accra Agenda for Action. “A hopeful start could be the agreement on the 3-5 year timeline
on the predictability of aid flows as it is now in the [agenda],” suggested Stefano Piziali from CESVI.
Pushing reform
The High Level Forum
was accompanied by an unprecedented mobilisation of organisations committed to improving the effectiveness of aid. “Civil society will have a key role in ensuring progress in the reform agenda,
holding governments...to account. The Accra Agenda will only be an agenda for action if civil society is able to constantly push for reform,” according to Vagn Berthelsen.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
