Aid Effectiveness and Accountability Newsletter - February 2009
Highlights
- Working Party on Aid Effectiveness develops new mandate and workplan
- UK to Host UNCAC Review Team
- DFID’s new policy on evaluation - One month to go and counting
Aid Effectiveness
Working Party on Aid Effectiveness develops new mandate and workplan
The Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, a major international forum hosted by the DAC where partner countries join with donors and others to improve the effectiveness of aid, is currently developing its new mandate, membership and work programme for the next two years. The focus is on assisting donors and partner countries to meet their Paris and Accra commitments by 2010. The revised mandate and plans will be submitted for approval to the full meeting of the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness on 31 March and 1 April 2009. For further information, contact Jackie Peace in the Aid Effectiveness Team in AEAD.
Committing to Development Effectiveness in Indonesia
On 12 January DFID signed up to the ‘Jakarta Commitments: Aid for Development Effectiveness’. The Commitments are a joint roadmap of actions for the Government of Indonesia and its development partners to strengthen the quality and impact of international assistance in Indonesia.
Implementing Paris and Accra: Towards a Regional Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean
Foundation
for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue (FRIDE) has released an
analysis of the challenges and opportunities of adapting the Paris Declaration
on Aid Effectiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean. Systematising the
lessons in implementing the Paris principles in six Latin American middle-income
countries,
the document aims to feed into the design of a regional aid
effectiveness agenda which in turn could influence the global aid policies. For
further information please contact Nils-Sjard Schulz at FRIDE.
Anti Corruption
UK to Host UNCAC Review Team
The UK is participating in the Pilot of the UN Convention against Corruption Review Mechanism. Last year we reviewed Tanzania – assessing the progress it has made in implementing the Convention. We will now host an expert visit on 9-12 March which will assess us. These pilots will inform the shape of the final Review Mechanism. A robust review process will guide future country level anti-corruption efforts. Please contact Nimesh Jani for more information.
Combating International Corruption
UK seizes stolen Brazilian money: Late last year, at the request of the Brazilian authorities the UK seized assets held in UK banks to the value of £60 million alleged to be the proceeds of corruption by a Brazilian City Mayor. These funds will be returned to Brazil in due course. Please contact Andrew Preston for further information.
Evaluation
DFID’s new policy on evaluation
There is just under a month left before the public consultation on DFID’s new policy on evaluation, as well as on the list of potential evaluation topics, closes on 3 March.
We’ve had excellent inputs from a wide variety of external stakeholders already, but would still like to hear more in particular from partners in developing countries. One of the recurring comments has been on emphasising the role of southern country governments, institutions and civil society organisations in evaluation and it is particularly from that perspective we invite more detailed comments directly. If you are a representative from such an organisation, or have regular contact with them, please read and discuss the policy and feed back your views to evalutionfeedback@dfid.gov.uk.
To prompt thought, the issues arising under the four pillars of the policy have included for example:
- the realistic level of independence in evaluations commissioned in-country that can be expected when the emphasis is on a partnership approach to evaluation – which takes priority?
- the capacity of partners and capacity within DFID in terms of skills to carry out high quality evaluation
- does the policy really speak the language of learning? Learning for DFID or learning for wider public good in development policy and practice; these can be two different things
- the need to take a look at 3 aspects of quality: quality in the processes; quality in the product itself; quality in the user/use of the resulting findings.
We look forward to hearing from many more partners over this final month. For further information contact Lynn Quinn.
Public Financial Management Reform - A Literature Review
Strong Public Financial Management (PFM) systems are essential to improved service delivery, poverty reduction and to achievement of the MDGs. In 2007, a core group of five development partners (African Development Bank, CIDA, DFID, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SIDA) agreed to collaborate on the first phase of what is intended to be a multi-donor evaluation of PFM reform.
The first phase –
a literature review
(1,662kb) to synthesise the main theoretical
approaches and findings from evaluations of PFM reform programmes, and to
identify knowledge gaps – was led by DFID. The report, Public Financial
Management Reform: A Literature Review, has just been published.
The review explores current research and evaluations on the subject to help identify knowledge, and also knowledge gaps. Areas covered include the difficulty of precisely defining public financial management; monitoring and evaluation, timescales; country context and ownership; institutional factors; service delivery; the relationship with wider public sector reform; change management; capacity development, and the role of external stakeholders. This review is a joint collaborative effort of all five development agencies and is a first step towards further evaluation work in the area of Public Financial Management Reform.
The second phase of this work is likely to be led by the DANIDA (Danish
International Development Agency) and SIDA (Swedish International Development
Agency). A first meeting will be held in Copenhagen in mid-February 2009, to
agree on arrangements for the next phase of work, and to commission preparation
of an Approach Paper. The evaluation is expected to take place over 2009/10.
For further information on the literature review please contact Adrian Nembhard.
Other Aid Effectiveness
New Head of Research
From the beginning of March the new Head of Research will be Professor Chris Whitty. He is currently professor of international health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He qualified as a medical doctor at Oxford University, and also holds degrees in economics, law and epidemiology. He is Director of the Malaria Centre, and of the ACT consortium, which is a collaboration of 20 institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. He has worked as a doctor in Africa and Asia, and during the past five years has been involved in clinical, social and economic research in Afghanistan, Angola, Ghana, Malawi, Pakistan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen. He is a consultant physician on tropical diseases and chair of the Department of Health national expert panel on new and emerging infections.
Call for Proposals for Product Development Partnerships (PDP’s)
DFID is calling for proposals for funding for PDPs in two phases. The first phase is a competition for PDPs that already receive DFID funding, to bid for resources for a further five year period. Funding for successful organisations will be available for 5 years starting in 2008. The second phase, a competition for PDPs that are not currently funded by DFID, will be launched in December 2008/January 2009. Funding for successful organisations will be available for 5 years starting in 2009. Calls for Expressions of Interest for the second phase have now been made. Please see essential information on how to submit a proposal and the deadlines. For further information contact Dale Poad.
Award of Young Lives Phase 4
Following a tendering competition the University of Oxford’s Department of
International Development is to be awarded Phase 4 of the Young Lives research
programme that is due to start in July 2009. Young Lives is a long-term research
and advocacy project to generate evidence on the causes and consequences of
childhood poverty and inequality. It aims to shape policy debate and programme
design in the study of countries and globally. It was established in 2001 to
track the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Vietnam and Peru. The
award is subject to contract negotiation. Full details are available on the
Oxford University news release(20kb). For further information contact Dale Poad.
Upcoming seminars and events
International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) - Global Assembly, South Africa, 17-21 March 2009
Founded in 2002, IDEAS is an independent global association of nearly 800
evaluation professionals from 92 countries, which receives support from DFID,
under its evaluation capacity development mandate.
IDEAS seeks to strengthen
evaluation capacity in partner countries, with a core mission "to improve and
extend the practice of development evaluation by refining knowledge, [and to]
strengthen capacity and expanding networks for development evaluation,
particularly in developing and transition countries".
Following earlier global meetings in New Delhi, Prague, and Niamey, the second Global Assembly will be held in Johannesburg in March 2009. The theme of the Assembly is 'Getting to results; evaluation capacity building and development'. Uniquely, under a 'Local Action' programme, the Assembly themes have been developed from analysis of the views of nearly 400 evaluators in 26 countries (from regional meetings held in late 2008), which identified issues in the areas of (i) Localisation; (ii) Mentoring, and (iii) MDG sensitisation and data gathering. The Assembly will cover the following topics, all of which will result in follow-up activities:
i. Building Evaluation Capacity in Response to the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action
ii. Institutional capacity building
iii. Regional Response/ Regional Strategies for building Evaluation Capacity
iv. Evaluation Capacity Building - Tools, Techniques and Strategies
v. The Measurement and Assessment of Evaluation Capacity Building
Alison Girdwood from Evaluation Department and Joe Abbey from the Independent Advisory Committee for Development Impact (IACDI) will attend. EvD is currently developing its capacity development strategy and more information will follow in future editions of the AE Newsletter. Please contact Lynn Quinn for further information.
The co-ordination of the Aid Effectiveness and Accountability network, including the AE&A newsletter, is undertaken by Catherine Ferry and Mary Smith on behalf on the Aid Effectiveness and Accountability Department. To keep abreast of the latest in aid effectiveness, please e-mail Catherine or Mary who will add your name to the mailing list. Please also let Catherine or Mary know of any news you have which relates to Aid Effectiveness for publishing in the newsletter.
Catherine Ferry
Mary Smithh
