FRIDE Humanitarian Action and Development

Development and migration policies: The case of Subsaharan Africa and Spain

Graciela Rico Pérez — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

AFP/Getty Images

Is Spanish cooperation policy being used to help manage migratory flows? Do the closely-related interests behind the two spheres of policy demonstrate that aid is being implemented? Is there a real process of coordination and alignment between actors in order to design efficient policies?

In Spain, what remains to be discovered is a coherent line between development and migration policies, which still preserves the objectives behind each of the two dimensions. Currently, the drawing up of the new Plan Director 2009-2012 (Pdf,spanish) and the second Plan Africa present an excellent opportunity to build such coherence throughout the whole process, from the directives through to the intervention programmes.

This comment analyses the stage that the current debate between the public authorities, the actors involved and think-tanks is at with respect to achieving coherence between both policies. It also hopes to open up a new line of thinking regarding what strategies and measures could be implemented so that migration and development complement one another in the way they operate.

Accra, the day after

Sarah-Lea John de Sousa, Stefan Meyer, Nils-Sjard Schulz — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

N. Schulz

Towards a better world with the Accra Agenda for Action? In the days after the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, three FRIDE researchers have reflected in a radio discussion on the outcomes and implications of the agreement that had been reached.

Stefan Meyer focuses on historical precedents and the previous development fashions that are both synthesised and overcome in the new consensus on aid. Nils-Sjard Schulz emphasises the implications for a better aid practice and highlights the potential shift in power from Northern domination towards a more equal relation between donors and recipients. Sarah-Lea John de Souza describes the role of new Southern actors in development cooperation, particularly focusing on Brazil, both as tough negotiator in Accra and practitioner of a new South-South collaboration.

A number of themes of the global governance of aid are being touched upon. Among them, the question of the adequate platform for negotiating the aid regimen, today dominated by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), whose position could be complemented by the UN Development Cooperation Forum (DCF). Negotation dynamics were also relevant in Accra, with Southern countries having prepared common positions in a contact group and the North being split into more progressive donors and those who want to maintain control over funds.

Furthermore, the discussants debate the relevance of aid effectiveness in the Latin-American continent and the need for an adaptation of the Paris Declaration to its context. A particular role is mentioned for Secretaría General Iberoamericana (SEGIB) in coordinating the South-South and triangular development cooperation.

Listen the interview:

Abuja: new horizons for the EITI

Belén Díaz González — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

In Equatorial Guinea, progress on the subject is very limited (In the photo: Teodoro Obiang. Credits: P. Marcou/AFP/Getty Images)

The EITI’s voluntary regime is gradually being established as a means of entry to fight corruption in Africa’s conflict-ridden extractive industries sector. However, as it currently stands, this tool has limited capacity to redress the problem of “resource curse”, an issue which has marked Publish What You Pay’s Annual Regional Meeting and the first EITI Conference in Western Africa (Abuja).

African civil society organisations are increasing pressure for broader commitments on the part of governments, companies and consumer countries, beyond the EITI’s current demands (for payments between companies and governments to be published).

If there is a real concern to reform the sector, a greater degree of transparency in the complex chain governing the transformation of natural resources into economic and human development will need to be achieved: from the transparency of oil contracts (contract disclosure) and bidding processes, to transparency in the management of income from extractive industries in policies aimed at reducing poverty.

Time is running short for candidate countries to pass the EITI examination in March 2010 (the date when mechanisms at the country-level need to be validated). Without a doubt, this will be a big step forward. However, the promoters of the initiative and stakeholders must reflect on the need to assume greater political commitments beyond the EITI.

Perspectives for the global governance of aid

Nils-Sjard Schulz — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

Nils-Sjard Schulz

The III High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF), held in Accra (Ghana) early this September, was conceived of as an opportunity to take stock of the implementation of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness half way towards its target date of 2011.

Originally, the Forum was to focus on providing a technical assessment of the progress made and obstacles encountered thus far, based on the recent monitoring and evaluation reports of the Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC).

However, due to ongoing profound changes in North-South relations and a complex consultation process with both partner countries and CSO, the Accra HLF became an excellent opportunity to continue renegotiating the global governance of aid, covering political issues affecting aid relationships.

Building the global governance of aid

Stefan Meyer, Nils-Sjard Schulz — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

N. Schulz

Between 2 and 4 September 2008, the international development community gathered in Accra (Ghana) in order to discuss the progress of and future steps for aid effectiveness. While the 2005 Paris Declaration sets technical standards for achieving better development results, political issues had an important impact on its implementation over the last three years.

This backgrounder by Stefan Meyer and Nils-Sjard Schulz takes a historical point of departure to track development trends and pathways of development policy principles leading to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. It describes agenda setting by the World Bank, the United Nations and the OECD/DAC. Thereby it critically traces the genesis of the five principles of aid effectiveness: ownership, alignment, harmonisation, results-orientation and mutual accountability.

It then documents the evolution of the debate from Paris to Accra and identifies issues of contestation for the future aid agenda. Amongst these, political dimensions, such as conditionalities, the independent monitoring of mutual accountability between donors and governments, emerging patterns of South-South cooperation and a general call for democratisation of the new aid architecture.

Finally, the document describes a series of key issues that donors and partner countries will have to attend to in order to maintain the momentum of the aid effectiveness agenda. In the aftermath of the High-Level Forum in Accra, it might be necessary to pay greater attention to the politics of development partnership, which should feed more consistently into the evolving global governance of aid.

(Home page photo by Elektra Cute. Flickr)

Strengthening Women's Citizenship: Sierra Leone

Clare Castillejo — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

There is currently great interest in citizenship within the development community. Strong citizenship has come to be seen as a vital ingredient for good governance and development, and strengthening the citizenship of poor people is viewed as a way to ensure their rights and participation in governance.

However, one of the biggest challenges is how to strengthen citizenship for women in developing countries. In many African countries women have little contact with the formal state and their lives are governed by customary governance systems that seriously limit their rights and opportunities for political participation. This is particularly true for women in fragile states, where the formal state is weak and inaccessible.

CGG

Based on field research in Sierra Leone conducted by FRIDE and CGG, this Working Paper by Clare Castillejo examines how processes of post-conflict state-building have redrawn the boundaries of authority between the formal state and customary governance systems, and thereby provided new citizenship opportunities for women.

The paper explores the changes that are taking place in women’s rights, women’s political participation and women’s mobilisation in Sierra Leone, in the context of state-building. It also makes recommendations for how donors can support the strengthening of women’s citizenship within their support for state-building in Africa.

The aid effectiveness agenda and decentralised cooperation

Miguel González Martín — 2008-11-22T08:37:58+01:00

Atelier Teee, Flickr

Decentralised cooperation represents approximately 15 percent of total Spanish ODA. To its significant quantitative reach must also be added the important institutional development which it has experienced in recent years through autonomous legislation, strategic planning, the creation of new agencies and the opening of new offices and expatriation of personnel. The debate over the effectiveness of aid that has emerged in the international arena in recent years, and which crystallised in the Paris Declaration, is conceived by and for states.

Even if moves have been made to incorporate civil society into the debate, there is still little sign of serious efforts to include sub-state actors in the process of reflection. In the Spanish case, the debate over aid effectiveness, along with other questions, is fuelling a growing level of analysis and increasing numbers of proposals regarding the role decentralised cooperation should play in the overall framework of Spanish development aid.

On one hand, analysts speak of the necessary coordination of autonomous and centrally managed cooperation, in order to avoid duplication and overlapping and thereby cultivate the efficiency of the system. At present, the difficulties of coordination extend from the limitations of existing mechanisms to the lack of real political will, not to mention the absence of an adequate framework of incentives for coordination.

On the other hand, it is also argued that decentralised cooperation could specialise in certain sectors or geographical areas, applying at the internal level some of the principles inspired by the division of labour among donors proposed by the EU.

However, even though coordination is very necessary and a debate about the potential areas for decentralised cooperation is possible, this Comment article argues that the added value of decentralised cooperation must be sought out by fostering a dynamic of cooperation that is born of closeness to the citizenry. The objective should be to thereby underline, in a new way, the relationship between the various actors who participate in cooperation.