NN42, June 2009
A Safari Towards Aid Effectiveness?
The Commission for Africa (2005) Revisited
By Myles Wickstead, Former Head of Secretariat, Commission for Africa
Email: mswickstead@hotmail.comKeywords
Commission for Africa; CFA
Summary
This article revisits some of the commitments and pledges that have been made with regard to education, in the context of some of the recommendations made by the Commission for Africa in 2005.
The title of this edition of NORRAG NEWS has to do with the idea of safari, of moving forward from one place to another. It is a helpful metaphor, and looking at developments affecting Africa as a journey divided into five- or ten-year stages provides a useful historical perspective.
1985 was the year in which Live Aid brought to radio and to television screens, the world over, the tragedy of famine in Ethiopia - images which continue to dominate, however unjustly, perceptions both of that country and of Africa more generally.
1990 saw the end of the Cold War period, and with it the rationale (though not, immediately, the practice) for using aid as an instrument of ideological support, where the political allegiance of a particular African regime mattered more than its governance and human rights record.
2000 was the year in which the Governments of the world committed themselves to supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), pledging to halve the proportion of people living in absolute poverty within fifteen years.
2005 was the year in which Africa was at the centre of the international stage, through its own efforts to make progress and through the work of the Commission for Africa (CFA), ?Make Poverty History?, Live 8 and the Gleneagles Summit.
2015 is the year by which the promises of 2000 and the commitments of 2005 must be delivered. So as we move towards 2010 on our journey, it is not a bad time to take stock of what has been done and what is left to do; of thinking about whether 2010 will be remembered as the year in which the international community recommitted itself to delivering on its promises to Africa, or acknowledged that the political will to do so does not exist.
There are some encouraging signs. There is increasing recognition that (as the CFA Report stated very clearly) ?Africa must take the lead in this partnership? and that (as the June 2009 Report of the Africa Progress Panel rightly recognises) ?African leaders have succeeded in securing progress on multiple fronts over the past decade but that they cannot tackle the continent?s current challenges alone?.
The global economic crisis, and the G20 Summit, have given impetus to another set of CFA recommendations, around the voice of Africa specifically and developing countries in general, in influencing decision-making bodies such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO. The G20 meeting at the beginning of April 2009 shows what can be achieved with strong leadership and political will. The question now is whether that leadership and political will can be summoned again over the coming period, culminating with the UN Summit in New York in September 2010.
There has undoubtedly been some progress on the donor front since 2005 - for example, against the CFA Recommendation that (consistent with the Paris Declaration of the same year) ?Aid should be untied, predictable, harmonised and linked to the decision-making and budget process of the country receiving it?. ONE?s fourth annual DATA Report of June 2009 shows that a number of G8 countries are in fact making good progress against their development assistance commitments, with real measurable benefits on education and health outcomes, but notes that France and particularly Italy are performing poorly. A huge effort will thus be required if the goal of a doubling of official development assistance to Africa, from around $25 billion in 2005 to $50 billion in 2010, is to be achieved.
And of course it does not end there. The CFA recommended that the situation needed to be reviewed in 2010 and that subsequently ?a further $25 billion per annum should be provided, building on changes in the quality of aid and improvements in governance?. The need, given the global economic downturn, is perhaps even more acute than originally anticipated. Can it be achieved? We shall see. In any event, 2010 will be a crucial year. The journey continues. Safari njema.
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