Ghana is committed to Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda for Action on aid effectiveness – Duffuor
Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has reiterated the country’s commitment to the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) on aid effectiveness.
Ghana depends on International Development Assistance (IDA) to support its national budget.
For instance in 2009, the country received as much as $1.2 billion in grants.
In an article published in the newsletter of the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), Dr. Kwabena Duffuor says Ghana is committed to the work outlined in the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action and has launched several important initiatives to increase aid effectiveness within the country.
The next High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness will be hosted by South Korea in November 2011 in Busan. Ghana hosted the HLF-3 in Accra in 2008.
Dr. Duffuor writes, “changes in the global economic environment, especially in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and economic recession, demand that we critically review existing structures for managing aid and that we work with all our global partners to lay the foundations for a new international development co-operation architecture. This new architecture would take cognizance of and internalize the global community’s achievements in aid effectiveness, as well as allow the unfinished aid agenda to be addressed.”
He said for example, Ghana has consistently pointed out that greater country-level implementation of the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action commitments is needed in order to magnify their impact and deepen country ownership.
He argues that to magnify the impact of the Paris Declaration and AAA and deepen country ownership, Ghana has developed a country specific Aid Policy and Strategy: 2011-2013. The policy according to Ministry of Finance officials is currently before Cabinet for consideration.
“This national policy is built upon Paris Declaration principles and the Accra Agenda for Action commitments. The Policy recognizes, among other things, the need for improved Government structures and systems that will ensure effective coordination and delivery of aid,” he says.
Dr. Duffuor indicates that with regard to improving mutual accountability in aid management and delivery, the creation of Ghana’s Development Partner Performance Assessment Framework is also a positive step forward. He says this framework serves as a tool that measures the extent to which Development Partners adhere to the common agreed principles for aid delivery. “The Framework has already been rolled out and the initial results are being assessed,” he says.
According to him however, the preliminary results of the 2011 survey on monitoring the implementation of the Paris Declaration in Ghana reveal progress and setbacks on both sides.
“It is important, however, not to view these results as a competition between Ghana and her development partners; rather, this should compel both parties to strive towards more effective aid delivery and higher quality interventions that can have the greatest possible impact in reducing poverty and promoting peace and prosperity,” he says.
Emphasising on Ghana’s commitment to enhance the country’s relationship with donors, he writes, “to further boost development partners’ confidence in and to encourage them to use Ghana’s Public Financial Management and procurement systems, Ghana has intensified the implementation of key financial legislation and other legal instruments: namely, the Financial Administration Act (Act 654) the Internal Audit Act (Act 658) and the Public Procurement Act (Act 663). With such actions in mind, we expect our development partners to show more confidence in the reformed systems and, where further change is required, actively collaborate with the Government to achieve mutually acceptable systems.”
Dr. Duffuor also believes that Korea can use its experience, both as a donor and currently as a DAC member, to ease latent tensions and help establish a constructive dialogue between the OECD-DAC donors and the non-DAC donors from the South.
“This would give meaning and impetus to the emergence of an inclusive development partnership post-Busan,” he says.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi