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Aid Effectiveness:
Key Issues for the Accra High Level Forum and Beyond

Tuesday 8 July

Speakers:
Sara Fyson, OECD Aid Effectiveness Division: Download presentation [PowerPoint]
Stephen Lister, Mokoro Principal Consultant: Download presentation [PowerPoint]

On the 2–4 September this year, representatives from multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, partner country governments and civil society organisations will meet in Accra to take stock on the implementation of the 2005 Paris Declaration and to agree the Action Agenda for improving future aid delivery.

This seminar looked at issues of aid effectiveness for and beyond Accra, drawing on the latest findings from studies on Paris Declaration implementation, including the 2008 Survey and the Paris Declaration Evaluation.

Sara Fyson’s presentation explored what is understood by “aid effectiveness” and why it is important, in particular looking at the challenges for partner governments when faced with unharmonised aid agencies and projects. Sara gave an overview of progress achieved on the Paris Declaration commitments and targets, and looked at the key challenges that remain. These include strengthening ownership in practice, improving aid predictability (especially over the medium term), and increasing the use of country systems. Finally Sara highlighted the importance of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), one of the key outputs of the Accra High Level Forum. Rather than a new Paris Declaration, the AAA will be a political, ministerial statement, setting out a small set of concrete actions to set the future direction for aid effectiveness. Priority actions are likely to include: strengthening country-owned development processes, building stronger, more inclusive, partnerships for development and delivering and accounting for development results.

Stephen Lister’s presentation covered the risks and rewards of using country systems, highlighting findings from the two Mokoro studies to explore why there has been such slow progress in using country systems. Stephen gave an overview of some of the issues in this area, which include: different donor and country approaches in practice, poor correlation between quality of PFM and donors’ use of country systems, the importance of definitions, detail and context, the relevance of all aid modalities, and their design, and the importance of incentives and political economy.

If you would like further information about this seminar please contact Frieda McAlear.

Social Protection: A New Policy Area in Developing Countries?

Tuesday 1 April, 2008

While social protection was largely absent from the development agenda two decades ago, development policy-makers and practitioners today pay greater attention to it. There is a realisation that social protection may have a role to play in growth, and that a number of activities such as food security programmes, in danger of getting lost in the new 'growth agenda', might fare better if they are anchored into a wider social protection policy/strategy. Last but not least, social protection may be linked to the empowerment and governance agenda through its transformative dimension.

The seminar, facilitated by Catherine Dom, comprised three presentations:

• Sam Bickersteth, head of Oxfam's Programme Policy Team, working in areas including sustainable livelihoods and disaster risk reduction, talked about the internal and external constraints which have made it difficult to engage with social protection programmes, in particular that of bridging the traditional divide between development and emergencies.
• Judith Sandford, rural development expert, talked about social protection and pro-poor growth in Ethiopia. She discussed the theories behind the design of the Productive Safety Net Programme of the Government of Ethiopia, with which she has been closely involved. She described how these theories have influenced the design of the programme; and also how emergency systems which preceded the safety net have moderated this influence. She described constraints and successes in the implementation of the programme and their likely influence on the programme achieving its objectives.
• Ann Bartholomew, one of Mokoro's Principal Consultants, talked about social protection in Vietnam, where she has worked regularly over the years. As the government reform agenda has evolved, social protection has emerged as a key policy area, increasingly with Vietnam's accession to the WTO. The social protection agenda has been addressed through a variety of government initiatives and has been supported by donors through general budget support policy dialogue and various sector related programmes. Ann traced the development of policy relating to social protection and the role played by donors in supporting policy reform in this area.

Lessons from PEFAs

Thursday 27 September, 2007

This was an opportunity to hear from Frans Rønsholt, Head of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat, and Mary Betley, Mokoro Principal Consultant and an experienced consultant in PEFA assessments. The objectives of the seminar were to learn about the design and use of PEFAs and gain a valuable insight into PEFAs from a practitioner's perspective. The seminar was well attended - 36 people from a variety of organisations - who enjoyed Frans Rønsholt's presentation 'Avoiding Banana Skins - Design and Use of PEFAs', and Mary Betley's presentation on 'PEFA from a Practitioner's Perspective'.

For copies of the presentations, please contact Frieda McAlear at fmcalear@mokoro.co.uk

1. Avoiding Banana Skins - Design and Use of PEFAs - Frans Rønsholt, PEFA Secretariat
2. PEFA from a Practitioner's Perspective - Mary Betley, Mokoro Principal Consultant

Mokoro and WeD seminar (Wellbeing in Developing Countries)

Tuesday 9 January, 2007

The fundamental goal of the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) Research Group at the University of Bath, funded by the ESRC, is to develop a conceptual and methodological framework for understanding the social and cultural construction of wellbeing in developing countries. This is applied in a set of fieldwork studies in 24 communities in four developing countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand.

The WeD team strongly believes that research must inform policy-making and practice, and one of their concerns is, therefore, that their key messages should be relevant to development policy-makers and practitioners in the field. The seminar was an opportunity for WeD to asses how some of its (preliminary at this stage) research findings 'appeal' to Mokoro as a group of practitioners.

For copies of the presentations, please contact Frieda McAlear at fmcalear@mokoro.co.uk.

1. Wellbeing and (some of) its challenges to the business of international development - Allister McGregor, WeD Director
2. Dreams and nightmares: measuring and modelling people's life goal satisfaction as a means to understanding development priorities and problems - James Copestake, WeD Peru
3. Democracy, governance and wellbeing - Joe Devine, WeD Bangladesh
4. Some perspectives on 'wellbeing' and 'illbeing' from Ethiopia: some implications for policy, practice and other action - Pip Bevan, WeD Ethiopia