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Aid Effectiveness

What Is Science and What Is Delivery?

Aleem Walji's picture

Having just returned from Dartmouth and meetings with the Center for Health Care Delivery Science, I’ve been thinking about the phrase “Delivery Science.” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim’s use of the term in recent speeches is related to using evidence-based experimentation to improve poor health, education, water, and basic service outcomes in the developing world.

Reflecting on this, I think, in many ways, “science” and “delivery” are distinct and need to be understood as different but reinforcing principles. So let’s break it down.

Aid architecture debate surfaces new ideas, appetite for dialogue

Axel van Trotsenburg's picture

busan_aid_architecture_panel

I am flying out of Busan after a very stimulating discussion on the new aid architecture at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. We organized this panel discussion with the goal of learning what our development partners, particularly new partners, think about the future of aid—the challenges and opportunities.

A Stop in Cuzco on the Road to Busan: Taking Procurement Reform to HLF4 and Beyond

Enzo de Laurentiis's picture

In May 2011 a diverse and inclusive group of procurement practitioners from around the world—representing countries ranging from middle-income countries to fragile states, as well as development partners and civil society organizations—met in Cuzco, Peru, to discuss and agree on the messages to be sent to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan. They signed a declaration providing important inputs to the Effective Institutions and Country Systems themes that would be discussed in Busan. Participants endorsed an important strategic direction: to increase po

Three-way-learning. The South-South Agenda in Busan

Han Fraeters's picture

Here in Busan, at the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, there is strong momentum around South-South Cooperation and Knowledge Exchange. The main Thematic Session on South-South, moderated by WBI Vice President Sanjay Pradhan, drew a crowd of close to 500 people. In the intense negotiations over the Busan Outcome Document, the South-South agenda is also front and center. Why?

First of all, South-South is a great way to support development. Let me give an example.

Harmonization and alignment in development assistance for health: now what?

Cristian Baeza's picture

The International Health Partnership (IHP+) has done an exceptional job the last three years in bringing together countries, donors, international financial institutions, civil society, the United Nations, and many other partners to agree on how, concretely, we would implement the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

Harmonization and alignment in development assistance for health: now what?

Cristian Baeza's picture

SDM-NP-101 World Bank

The International Health Partnership (IHP+) has done an exceptional job the last three years in bringing together countries, donors, international financial institutions, civil society, the United Nations, and many other partners to agree on how, concretely, we would implement the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. It’s a complex, demanding, and crucial task.

We support countries’ efforts to improve the lives of millions of people—but we often accompany this support by burdening countries with many different reporting, fiduciary, monitoring, evaluation, and other systems. Five years ago, we didn’t have a venue to discuss, or know, what good harmonization and alignment could look like, and we hadn’t agreed to common fiduciary, monitoring, and evaluation systems.

But today, in large part to our shared efforts in the context of IHP+ and country leadership, we’ve agreed on a joint assessment of country health strategies, a common financial management approach, and on some aspects of monitoring and evaluation. And we have outstanding country examples such as Nepal.

Why, then, isn’t this happening at a speed compatible with the urgency of the task? If we have examples and agreements, what’s stopping us?

The future of aid—and how to make it more effective

Axel van Trotsenburg's picture

I have some good and some not so good news about aid. First, the good news. The aid landscape has seen three important changes during the last decade that have had a transformative, positive effect on the very nature of aid.

One of these changes has been the increased focus on the quality of aid—especially on the results being achieved on the ground. The World Bank and IDA, the Bank’s fund for the poorest, have placed a premium on having a real impact in the work we support, and the results show.

Embracing all forms of development cooperation

Joachim von Amsberg's picture

World Bank Aid Effectiveness ShowcaseToday, the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) will open in Busan, Korea. The HLF-4 is an opportunity for the global development community to come together and showcase the results that our partner countries have been producing, and to shape the future course of the aid effectiveness agenda in a dramatically changing global development landscape.

The Future of Development Aid

Sri Mulyani Indrawati's picture

Even skeptics admit it: effective aid works. In the last 25 years, the share of poor people in developing countries has been cut by half, and the last decade has witnessed impressive development successes in countries once thought beyond help. read more...

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011.

Three myths about aid to Kenya

Wolfgang Fengler's picture

The World Bank and IMF have received much press attention in recent weeks in Kenya.  The Kenyan Kazi Kwa Vijana (“work for youth”) initiative, which the Bank was supporting through its Youth Empowerment Project, and Government’s decision to request substantial IMF funding to support macroeconomic stability have been the source of heated debates in parliament.

This gives me an opportunity to share some thoughts which are influenced by “Delivering Aid Differently”, a book which Homi Kharas and I co-authored and launched in Nairobi and Washington a year ago.

In recent years, the aid industry has been a focus of critical examination and the object of debate.

Mainstreaming Civil Society Participation at the Annual Meetings

John Garrison's picture

The participation of civil society representatives at the World Bank and IMF’s Annual Meetings, which brings together the world’s finance ministers to discuss international development policy, has grown steadily over the past six years.  The most recent Annual Meeting, held in October 2011, saw the largest CSO participation to date, with a total of 600 CSO representatives from 85 countries in attendance. They represented a variety of civil society constituencies: non-governmental organizations, youth groups, foundations, faith-based groups, and trade unions.  They came to discuss a broad range of issues ranging from financial transactions tax and aid effectiveness, to energy policy.  In order to ensure that Southern CSO voices are also heard, the Bank and Fund sponsored 60 CSO and Youth Leaders from developing countries to participate in the Meetings. 

Can aid become more relevant to ‘getting things done’?

David Booth's picture

He said it in Washington; now he has said it again in London. Who? Former UK premier Tony Blair, speaking at ODI on governance and leadership for development in Africa.

What has he been saying? That the better governance low-income Africa needs is about getting better leadership (here understood as ‘effective capacity to get things done’) – not just a matter of more transparency and greater accountability.


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