Fw: Infosdebitarsi del 12 luglio 2005: Commenti e notizie sul comunicato finale del G8 dalla rete europea EURODAD

["raffaella chiodo karpinsky" <r.chiodo at inwind.it>]

Infosdebitarsi del 12 luglio 2005: Commenti e notizie sul comunicato finale
del G8 dalla rete europea EURODAD



PRS WATCH


NEWS: The G8 communiqué - More and Better Aid? Eurodad Briefing


Editorial

The much awaited G8 communiqué must be commended for responding to public
demands and putting development firmly on the geo-political map. But, many
of its policies are either too thin on detail (like just what conditions
will be attached to potential new aid flows) or lack robust enforcement
mechanisms (pledges on aid increases and enhancing aid effectiveness have
no real enforcement mechanism to ensure they will happen) leaving one to
question just how much will actually be put into practice. Sadly, if past
political pledges of action on development are anything to go by, then
genuine praise on the commitments contained in the communiqué will have to
wait until we see evidence of real action on the ground.

If, however, civil society thought the time to lobby was over, they were
wrong. The communiqué's many 'policy blanks' provide a window of
opportunity for civil society to fill them in with progressive detail.

Below is a summary of the Eurodad briefing on the G8 communiqué. For a full
version of the briefing go to:
<http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=638>http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=638

Hetty

NEWS: G8 communiqué: More and Better Aid? Eurodad Briefing

Aid Volume - As predicted and greatly welcomed, the communiqué includes a
pledge by G8 countries and other donors to increase aid by US$48 billion by
2010. However, the money is in no way guaranteed, with Germany and Italy,
for example, citing budget problems as potentially getting in the way of
them reaching the targeted increase. The United States Congress has also
not passed President Bush's ODA increases and it is yet to be seen whether
they will. It will also be a long time coming (spread over a five year
period) and, could be raised through borrowing against future aid budgets,
rather than new contributions. Finally, reading between the lines, it would
appear that the business of counting debt relief as overseas development
assistance will continue. Worryingly, for example, Russia's financial
contribution to raising aid appears to be entirely accounted for in terms
of debt write-offs (Annex II).

Conditionality - There is no clear information on what conditions countries
will have to meet in order to receive any potential new aid flows, though
the issue of good governance is flagged up numerous times in the report
indicating its importance. This is probably because most of the aid will be
disbursed independently by differing countries and as such will be subject
to different degrees and types of conditions.  Worryingly, the US has cited
the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) as a key vehicle for disbursing new
aid.  However, the MCA has notoriously tough conditions, making it likely
that many countries will not benefit from future funds.

Much has been made by civil society groups of paragraph 31, which
progressively calls for developing countries to have the right to decide
their own economic policies, something which civil society organizations
have been campaigning for, for a long time. Yet with no elaboration on what
this actually would mean in practice, it lacks enforceability and is open
to wide interpretation.  Civil society should push for more detailed policy
measures here to ensure that space for developing countries to create their
own economic policies exists, like calling for a cessation of economic
policy conditionality and in turn ensuring bilateral donor aid to not tied
to the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) conditions.

Aid Effectiveness - The communiqué makes a direct call for donors to be
held to account for full implementation of the Paris Declaration on aid
effectiveness, highlighting the need for greater untying of aid, more aid
predictability and greater use of program based approaches. However,
firstly, a lot of the new money is likely to be channelled through
'vertical' or 'global funds' and questions have been raised as to the
compatibility of these funds to enhancing ownership and moving towards
greater budget support. Secondly, like the Paris Declaration, the
communiqué dismally fails to articulate what monitoring mechanisms should
be put in place to ensure donors are held to account on aid effectiveness.
Eurodad, along with other NGOs have been campaigning for strengthening
international level monitoring mechanisms and NGOs should continue to
campaign on this issue calling for an international forum where donors and
creditors are equally represented.

Sector Priorities - Finally, the communiqué goes into some depth around the
need to enhance good governance, growth, trade capacity, infrastructure,
health, education, water and private sector development in Africa referring
to a number of existing or new initiatives that should be supported. The
communiqué should be commended on governance for drawing upon African
initiatives. However, what the communiqué fails to do is indicate which of
these issues is a priority and in need of immediate attention.

Conclusions - The G8 communiqué goes along way to addressing the need for
more and better aid. But, CSOs need to press for more detailed and improved
pledges and timetables in the run up to the Millennium Summit in September.
And, perhaps even more importantly, over the next few years, CSOs need to
continue to hold governments to account for their commitments, especially
when the issue is far from the public eye and media headlines.  In the end
whether the G8 Summit in 2005 will make a big difference to reducing world
poverty is yet to be seen. The test will be whether G8 countries live up to
their commitments.

Full Briefing:
<http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=638>http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=638

---------------------
Hetty Kovach
Poverty Reduction Strategies Policy and Advocacy Officer
European Network on Debt and Development
Tel: + 32 2 543 9062
Skype: eurodad-hetty
<http://www.eurodad.org>www.eurodad.org

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<http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=628>www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=628
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