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Aid/Development Effectiveness

MonterreyConsensus sqTHP Perspective: People have the right to be the principal authors of their own development — at the household, community and national level. THP is committed to ensuring that those living in poverty, and especially women, have a full voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

Key Interventions:

  • Country ownership of development. THP and others insist that “country” is not the same as “government.” Country-led strategies means bringing together all key stakeholders in development.
  • Capacity Building. Aid should build local capacity, not enrich outside contractors.
  • Transparency and accountability. The fundamental “deal” that establishes this new paradigm is that both recipients and donors of aid will be held to high standards of transparency and good governance.
  •  Results. For too long, the only meaningful metric for aid was ‘how much changed hands” – not – did it do any good? This new paradigm therefore depends on strong and timely monitoring and evaluation.

Key messages:

  • The September 2000 Millennium Declaration led to the question – who will pay for these goals? This led to the first International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico 2002. The “Monterrey Consensus” called for a new partnership based on good governance and the rule of law. It led to a series of four High Level Fora on Aid Effectiveness in 2002 (Rome), 2005 (Paris), 2008 (Accra) and 2011 (Busan).
  • “It is now the norm for aid recipients to forge their own national development strategies with their parliaments and electorates (ownership); for donors to support these strategies (alignment) and work to streamline their efforts in-country (harmonisation); for development policies to be directed to achieving clear goals and for progress towards these goals to be monitored (results); and for donors and recipients alike to be jointly responsible for achieving these goals (mutual accountability).” (OECD)

Global Campaigns and Initiatives:

Key agencies and reform programs:

  • OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
  • MCC: The US Millennium Challenge Corporation was the first large-scale experiment in providing large-scale multi-year funding for
  • Strengthening the UN is an overall reform effort to streamline and improve all aspects of the UN system, including its specialized agencies. In June 2012, the FAO Secretary General launched dramatic reforms, which have now been completed.
  • In October 2013, World Bank president Jim Kim announced a major reorganization – eliminating regional bureaus and establishing
  • In September 2010, President Obama issued Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, the first of its kind.
  • USAID Forward represents a reform effort to refocus the agency on strengthening local capacity.
  • Center for Global Development is a key think tank pushing for development reforms.
  • MFAN: The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network is the civil society networking pushing reform.

Key reports and data sources:

Key blogs and newsfeeds:

Must-read books:

  • William Easterly, White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. A strong statistical assault on “Big Aid.”