Ahead of Busan: Africa articulates its vision for aid reforms...

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23/9/2011 – Midrand / Addis Ababa - For the first time, Africa will be presenting a Common Position and Consensus on Development Effectiveness based on its own context, needs and priorities, at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan (HLF-4) scheduled for 29 November to 1 December 2011.

Over the last 2 years, in preparation for the HLF IV, the African Union Commission and NEPAD Agency have been mobilizing African stakeholders and partners through the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDEv) towards a common and inclusive position. Major milestones were the 1^st and 2^nd Africa regional consultations of Pretoria and Tunis, in March and November 2010, respectively, co-organised with the Government of South Africa and African Development Bank.

Resulting in the ‘Pretoria Outcomes’ and the ‘Tunis Consensus on Development Effectiveness’, the core message from the 1^st and 2^nd Regional Meetings is that Aid should support Africa towards sustainability. In practice, this means that investments through Aid should guarantee and achieve capacity development outcomes, as standard. Capacity Development is therefore a vehicle to actualize the Continent’s exit strategy from Aid and take full control of its destiny.

A Third Africa Regional Meeting on Development Effectiveness will therefore take place from 28-30 September 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the auspices of the African Union. The Meeting will be co-organised by the AU Commission and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Development Programme and the African Development Bank with the leadership of African Governments. GIZ, UN Women, Trust Africa, OSISA and Oxfam GB are supporting this engagement.

The overall objective of the Regional Meeting is to primarily validate the African position in shaping the post Busan agenda focusing on Aid reforms. In addition, the Meeting will dialogue on development effectiveness and the urgent transformation of the current global aid architecture in line with new realities.

For relevance of the Busan commitments, it is critical that Africa speaks on its own behalf and directly influences, as well as, secure space to endorse the Busan Outcome Document at the HLF4 through an inclusive process with countries and other global actors. Africa’s major stakeholders and partners are politically backing this process with a strong emphasis on the regional implications of Aid and development.

It is in this vain that through the coordination of the AU as representing African Heads of State and Government, Africa is geared to guarantee that the outcome of the HLF 4 is well aligned to its needs and priorities for the necessary legitimacy, ownership and leadership in line with the principles of the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action.

A call is being made to the international community, as well as, the OECD DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness to come behind, recognize and respect Africa’s own efforts to organize for sustainability.  

Africa’s key priorities for development effectiveness

Africa’s overarching objective is to attain Development Effectiveness through the effective use of both internal and external resources for development, given that for Aid to be effective it must be integrated in the larger development context. This requires Aid to work with other instruments to effectively support development results and thereby scale up the development impact of aid interventions.

In attending to the unfinished Aid agenda, Africa’s development partners to are called upon to align their delivery in support of the Continent’s renewal agenda, so that Aid can complement domestic financing. Therefore, that the Aid Effectiveness dialogue at the HLF4 should transcend negotiations on mere Aid Management issues and shift towards appropriately anchoring the engagement within the broader context of development

African countries must optimize the management and utilization of all resources through the achievement of synergies between effective aid, capacity development and South-South cooperation, with the private sector as key to unlocking effective development.

In this view, Africa’s key priorities for the realisation of Development Effectiveness on the continent;

i.        The unfinished Aid Effectiveness agenda;

ii.        Capacity for Development Effectiveness;

iii.        South-South Cooperation;

iv.        Regional dimension of Development Effectiveness;

vi.        Towards a new development cooperation architecture.

It is in this regard that, with the necessary support of the HLF 4 organisers (Government of South Korea and OECD DAC Working Party on AE) that Africa is gearing up to ensure a strong presence in Busan to present a Common Position and Consensus on Development Effectiveness.