Aid to developing countries topped US$ 100 billion last year, but the results of the money spent are still lacking. Realizing that the development aid delivery system needs to be enhanced lest it triggers a taxpayers' backlash in donor countries, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) launched the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) on 5 July as a new initiative to bring together all relevant actors into a major overhaul of how aid dollars are allocated and spent.
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An IPU delegation composed of four parliamentarians was present at the Geneva meeting: Ms. Rebecca Kadaga, Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Mr. Ephiphane Quenun, MP from Benin, Mr. François De Donnea, MP from Belgium and Ms. Doris Stump, from the Swiss Parliament. Their main message was that parliaments in both donor and recipient countries are key partners in the development aid architecture. In fact, given that national ownership of the development process is central to making aid dollars work, as the United Nations meeting concluded, parliaments must be more involved both internationally, through the DCF, and nationally, to make sure that aid reaches the people that need it the most and for the right priorities, and that it is delivered in the most cost-effective and coordinated ways.
To illustrate the problem: in a typical developing country, thousands of projects may be financed by myriad separate donor entities (bilateral agencies, United Nations programmes, the World Bank, regional banks, NGOs etc.) without anyone truly knowing what the projects are, how they are supposed to work together, and according to what priorities. The "transaction" costs of these projects may be much higher than the money actually spent in building essential infrastructure or providing services to the poor. The ways in which money flows into the country, and the conditions attached to it, are also hard to track and assess. For example, how much money should fall under General Budget Support (lump sum given by donors to the government to add to existing lines on the national budget, allowing for greater parliamentary scrutiny) as opposed to direct programme-based assistance? These and many more questions will form the core of the work of the new DCF.
The DCF launch included two roundtables, two informal policy dialogues, and a stakeholder forum. While reference to the role of parliament was made at almost all of the sessions, the most important discussion for IPU took place at an informal dialogue on The role of civil society, legislative bodies and other stakeholders in promoting improved aid quality, including monitoring and reporting on results. As the lead discussant at that session, Mr. Quenum dwelled on a point of particular relevance to the African region: for parliaments to exercise effective oversight of development aid, their capacities must be strengthened dramatically so that they become truly independent of the executive branch both in terms of power-sharing and in terms of analytical resources.
In particular, Mr. Quenum called for donors to provide direct allocations to parliament of a portion of the aid earmarked for the country. Such aid would go a long way to improving MPs' working conditions as well as their professional aptitudes to understand the intricacies of aid programmes. It would also help bring parliaments closer to citizens with a view to fostering wide consultation on needs, priorities and aid management at the local as well as national levels. In addition, the legislator from Benin recommended that "parliaments must be in direct contact with donors and United Nations agency representative on the ground to assist them, without going through the Executive, in understanding the policies and programmes put in place. At the very least, parliamentarians should know the exact sum of aid allocated to their countries and the priority areas earmarked for their use."
In what is a sure sign that parliaments will have a place in the DCF process beginning from the 2008 session, the IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders Johnsson, was invited to join an Advisory Group of representatives from government departments, donor entities, NGOs and the private sector, which will assist in defining the objectives and modalities of work of the DCF. The Advisory Group, chaired by the new United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Mr. Sha Zukang, met at the end of the day on 5 July and will meet again on the occasion of the next major event in preparation for the 2008 DCF - a symposium on South-South cooperation to be held in Cairo, Egypt, in December this year.
