Real aid gives people control of their lives, helping to secure their basic rights to food, education and health from their governments. Aid money can only be spent effectively when people in developing countries have a say over their government’s decisions to accept aid, and can hold them accountable for aid spending and results.
In 2005, governments from donor and recipient countries agreed targets to give poor countries more responsibility over aid. The Paris Declaration is based on the principles of giving developing countries ownership of aid money, aligning aid with national development strategies, better coordination between donors, and joint accountability for results.
Governments are not making enough progress, which means that aid is not working as well as it could to fight poverty. When governments meet to review the Paris Commitments in South Korea in 2011, ActionAid, as part of the BetterAid network, will demand that they fully adopt what they previously agreed and increase their ambition for the future.
What is ActionAid calling for?
ActionAid is calling for aid that is:
Poverty focussed: all aid should be explicitly be provided solely for poverty reduction
Transparent and predictable: poor countries must be able to plan for the future and use aid for long term development.
Free from harmful conditions: donors must stop pushing harmful unproven policies and withholding aid when governments don’t comply.
100% untied: aid should benefit people in poor countries, not be tied to the sale of goods and services from rich countries.
Available to build local knowledge and government systems. International consultants who lack local knowledge are expensive and ineffective, and the use of outside ‘experts’ often fails to build local skills.
photo : ©Andrew McConnell/Panos/ActionAid
