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Aid reform advocates urge new U.S. administration to act
08 January 2009
Civil society groups and think tanks working on foreign aid have produced a series of proposals for the new U.S. administration. A new report from Oxfam America gives strong weight to the arguments for a fundamental reform of the US legal framework which governs overseas aid. This is being demanded by a coalition of organisations known as the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. Eurodad director Alex Wilks was in Washington just before Christmas to give an overview of some relevant European approaches and discuss the messages in a new Eurodad/German Marshall Fund report.
The Oxfam report argues very persuasively that US foreign assistance legislation is unwieldy, fragmented and confusing. The Foreign Assistance Act – amended many times since it was written in 1961 – now weighs in at 417 pages. Foreign aid legislation now includes 38 other major laws and is mentioned in more than 200 laws overall. Oxfam argues that small changes will not suffice – president elect Barrack Obama should instead enact a new Global Development Act. Oxfam and others in the Network are calling for an overhaul not just of legislation, but of strategy, organisational structure and implementation approaches. They argue that “aid laws would work better if they were designed to help developing countries and citizens take more ownership of their development”.
Eurodad director Alex Wilks briefed relevant staffers on Capitol Hill and spoke at a meeting in Washington on 18 December. The meeting, organised by the German Marshall Fund (GMF), discussed the main messages of the joint Eurodad/GMF report. Wilks emphasised that the US was not doing well on implementing the harmonisation and alignment measures agreed under the Paris Declaration, for example the measures on using recipient country public finance management and procurement systems. He reminded the audience of about 65 think tank, NGO and government staff that all countries that have signed the Accra Agenda for Action have agreed to “use country systems as the first option for aid programmes in support of activities managed by the public sector” and to “immediately start working on and sharing transparent plans for undertaking their Paris commitments on using country systems in all forms of development assistance”. Among Wilks’ conclusions were that these plans should include more use of Joint Assistance Strategies, more pooled funding and budget support, and fewer separate donor projects.
Responding to Wilks’ presentation were Géraldine Dufort for the European Commission, Claire Moran for the UK Department for International Development and Dirk Dijkerman, for USAID. The first two largely agreed with the points in the Eurodad/GMF study, giving details, for example, about how DFID has moved to budget support in Cambodia. Dijkerman said he found the study useful but emphasised that there are some questions about the data in the Paris Monitoring Survey and that U.S. aid is using country systems in several cases. In the discussion participants expressed hope that further reforms would occur under the new administration, but recognised the challenges of moving these through the complex U.S. legislative process.
At a time when many financial flows are badly disrupted, increased aid flows are vital for many countries. Significant attention must also be paid to reducing the transaction costs that prevent some aid reaching those who need it on the ground. Further deep reforms are needed to both European and U.S. aid structures and policies to achieve this. Some European countries have shown what can be achieved, but none can afford to be complacent and many have a lot of work to do to implement their Paris and Accra aid effectiveness commitments.
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Alex Wilk's Presentation at DC Meeting
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