Regional preparatory meeting on Aid Effectiveness
Recommendations form Arab CSO
May 24 - 27, 2008
Called for by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), in partnership with the Civil Society Council- League of Arab States, and in cooperation with the Reality of Aid Network, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Bahraini Association for Human Rights,
CSOs held a regional meeting in preparation for the Third High-Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness in Manama-Bahrain between the 23rd and 27th of May 2008. It was attended by sixty eight participants from sixteen Arab countries (KSA, Qatar, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco), in addition to representatives of international and regional networks (Reality of Aid Network, Social Watch, Eurostep, OECD, Montreal International Forum, Habitat international coalition, Bank Information Center, International Federation of Arab Workers, and International Islamic Relief), as well as regionally-active international partners such as Diakonia (Sweden), Oxfam (UK), Canadian International Development Agency, and German Agency for Development (GTZ).
Two days were dedicated for discussing working papers on aid effectiveness, mainly Paris Declaration, Civil Society Position Paper, Accra Action Agenda, as well as participating country presentations. Besides, Paris Declaration main principles were addressed, especially “aid ownership”, accountability, alignment, harmonisation, and managing for results.
In this context,
Participants express their appreciation of the efforts exerted by countries and international donor agencies to formulate mechanisms that contribute to financing development and supporting developing countries in realising MDGs. They also appreciate the invitation of CSO representatives to organise a parallel process as well as to the HLF III in Accra next September.
Participants also support efforts within the framework of the Accra Forum and look forward to actively participating in it.
The outcomes of this meeting, as well as those of the Forthcoming forum in Accra, are to be submitted to the “Arab Summit for Economic and Social Development” organised by the league of Arab States in Kuwait in January 2009, in coordination with Civil Society Council- League of Arab States.
In addition, CSOs thank the Advisory Group and the International Steering Committee for their support by providing resources, documents and working papers, and by participating in the regional meeting.
Participants stress the importance of strengthening cooperation with the civil society as a major partner in the development process. They also emphasise that concurrence among democracy, justice, peace, development, fighting poverty and gender equity within the framework of aid is important, as it defines the latter’s success and effectiveness.
At the end of the meeting, participants issued the following remarks and recommendations:
1. Paris Declaration lacks a vision that bases on human rights and democracy at the level of aid, a fact that might aggravate economic and social crises. Participating organisations thus stress that aid effectiveness should be measured through the ability to achieve MDGs, taking into consideration harmonisation between aid processes and results on one hand and social justice, gender equity and human rights on the other.
2. Mechanisms that ensure the implementation and the follow up of Paris Declaration and require all concerned entities to apply associated criteria and goals are absent. Hence, effective participation and transparency mechanisms ought to be adopted.
3. Specificities of developmental and humanitarian work during conflicts should be taken into consideration, as well as the pivotal role played by organisations in this respect. Besides, relief is to be linked to the developmental process through building a comprehensive vision that attends to conflict resolution, just and comprehensive peace building and civil concord in the region. Partnerships between international relief agencies and local ones are to be also ensured.
4. Stress the importance of strengthening democratic ownership that is realised through the participation of concerned entities in the development process.
5. Secure the right of access to information in order to activate the participation of all entities, including civil society. This involves establishing an effective mechanism to ensure recognising this right.
6. Provide the legal, political and administrative environment that enables civil society and strengthens their independence, ensures aid effectiveness, contributes to achieving MDGs, and thus supports the role of donor organisations and Arab funds in realising development in the region.
7. Strengthen communication and interaction among all entities involved in national strategy formulation. This covers the diverse civil society, parliaments, private sector and government, where each entity is to maintain its independence and role.
8. As stipulations impede aid effectiveness, their occurrence should focus on human rights and parity among partners. Aid agreements and contracts ought to incorporate mutually-adhered to clauses on human rights and gender equity. Besides, aids should not be used as means to justify breaches, aggression, occupation and domination over national resources.
9. Participants express satisfaction with the growing role of donor organisations in the Arab region, such as governments and development/specialised funds. They however call for not only commitment to the principles and recommendations of aid effectiveness forums, but also active partnership in development processes in terms of adopting comprehensive developmental visions that take into consideration regional needs and regional integration requirements. Tackling these developmental challenges and realising social justice and gender equity are also among participants’ demands.
10. Focus on human resource development and capacity building, and also empower local communities at the level of participation and productive sectors, especially agriculture, in order to provide for citizens’ basic needs. In this context, reforms should be carried out in a manner that responds to internal needs and challenges. This entails that these reforms are comprehensive within a state of rights, justice, law and institutions.
11. Spread and strengthen the concept of social responsibility as key for supporting development processes, as well as involve the private sector as a responsible party.
12. Corruption, in all its aspects including the aid-associated, is an obstacle to development. Designing suitable mechanisms for accountability is thus of utmost importance.
13. In order to ensure aid effectiveness, organisations stress the importance of developing impact and performance indicators, adequate for local environments. Producing indicators related to gender equity is to be taken into consideration in this respect.
14. CSOs participating in the meeting call for establishing an effective mechanism for monitoring and following up on the implementation of pledges, in the framework of aid effectiveness, as per Paris Declaration and other ratified agreements.
