cort newsletter issue 6

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More CSOs endorse Key Ask

Upcoming Activities 2

NEWSLETTERIssue 6 September 2011

Inside BetterAid calls for inclusion ofcivil society messages in the

HLF Outcome Document

Better Aid Updates

International

IBON

CountryEngagement

for

Aid and Development

Effectiveness

3

4

In cooperation

with:

10

Regional Consultations
http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_3236398_35401554_1_1_1_1,00.htmlhttp://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_3236398_35401554_1_1_1_1,00.htmlhttp://www.dochas.ie/Shared/Files/4/First_Draft_Outcome__Doc_HLF4.pdfhttp://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_2649_3236398_43382307_1_1_1_1,00.html


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| Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 6 September 2011

CSO consultations on aid anddevelopment effectiveness

Upcoming ActivitiesSeptember 2011


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Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 6 September 2011

Updatesunites over 1200 development

organizations from civil society, and has been

working on development cooperation and

challenging the aid effectiveness agenda since

January 2007. BetterAid is leading many of

the civil society activities including in-country

consultations, studies and monitoring, in the

lead up to the Fourth High Level Forum on

Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) in 2011.

Test runs for BetterAids CSO KeyAsks were made in Europe with aid

effectiveness experts and non-

experts alike as participants.

Experts who joined in the tests are

WP-Eff members, officials from the

Europian Union technical seminar,

and some parliamentarians from

the European Parliaments

Development Committee. Ministry

officials not specializing on aid

effectiveness such the Polish MoFA,

as well as development NGOs not

directly involved in the BetterAid

processes like Saferworld/Concord

also participated through the fragile

states seminar.

For more information about the BetterAid platform,

visit:www.betteraid.organd follow BetterAid on

Twitter, athttps://twitter.com/betteraid

Country consultations

intensify


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Regional Consultations

Give development a human

face, Pacific Civil Society

leaders say*

SUVA, FIJI ISLANDS (11 July, 2011).

A Pacific regional meeting on aid and

development effectiveness has

reinforced an international call for

people to be brought to the centre of

development and that development co-

operation and aid effectiveness

processes are people centered, respect

human rights and achieve social justice

as cornerstones of aid and development

effectiveness.

In recent years, the Pacific region has

experienced structural adjustments,

political instability and policy changes

in its development assistance

landscape. Threats to human rights,

peace and security being experienced in

some Pacific countries have impacted

on the enabling environment for civil

society and affected the way in which

civil society works.

This was revealed at the Pacific Islands

Consultation on Aid and Development

Effectiveness which ended in Nadi at

the weekend. The meeting was

attended by civil society leaders from

Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati,

Samoa, Solomon Islands, Nauru, New

Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Timor

Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Organised by the Pacific Islands Association of Non Governme

Organisations (PIANGO) in

partnership with the Reality of Aid

Asia Pacific, the meeting acknowledged

the critical importance of donor support

for CSOs. It congratulated the

Continue to next page

*Article reprinted with permission from PIANGO.


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Australian government on accepting

the recommendations of an

independent aid review to increase

development assistance to the Pacific

and its emphasis on support to Non

Government Organizations.Participants also congratulated the

Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat

(PIFS) on its positive decision to

reinstate the post of Non State Actor

Officer saying they looked forward to

working closely with PIFS in

supporting Pacific governments to

engage more effectively with civil

society.

Civil society leaders called on Pacific

Island governments to revisit their

commitments to Pacific people and

CSOs at regional and international

levels within the context of the

Pacific Plan and Cairns Compact.

As umbrella CSO bodies, we have an

important role to play and

collaborate with other development

actors to influence regional and

global agendas and give voice to the

poor, disadvantaged andmarginalized that we work with. We

need to bring together youth, women,

men and community voices to

advocate on very real and pressing

issues affecting our region such as

climate change, food security, human

rights, gender, disabilities and

trade, says Ms Emele Duituturaga,

PIANGOs interim Executive

Director.

Commitments made on donorharmonization in international

agreements such as the Paris

Declaration need to be extended to

dialogue, resourcing and

collaboration with CSOs. Civil



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Society needs to have partnership

agreements with governments and

development partners to ensure that

development takes on a human face,

she said.

Ms. Ava Danlog of Reality of Aid said

that in some instances aid

effectiveness processes have been

very disempowering for citizens.

There is a need for CSOs to focus on

concrete, tangible outputs as there is

usually a tendency to focus on donor

hot topics. Aid should be about

partnerships. Development partners

must foster basic principles ofpartnership and acknowledge the

contribution of recipients. In

addition, trade and other economic

activities need to also focus on human

development, Ms. Danlog said.

An emerging issue in the Pacific

region and one that is also a part of

the larger development agenda issue

concerns the rights of people living

with disability in the region whocontinue to be marginalized and

excluded from development processes.

Mr Katabwena Tawaka, of the Pacific

Disability Forum told the meeting

that present statistics (June, 2011)

illustrate that over 800,000 people

are living with disabilities in the

Pacific.

There is a need for governments and

development partners to recognize

disability as a development issue.

Disability may increase the risk of

poverty. In the Pacific, people with

disabilities rely on their families for



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assistance and medical care and this

must be acknowledged by stakeholders.

The Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) also do not make specific

reference to people with disabilities,

he said.

The Pacific meeting was organized by

PIANGO and was part of Reality of Aid

Asia Pacific regional consultations in

the lead-up to the HLF4 in Busan,

South Korea, in November 2011.

HLF4 will assess whether or not key

government commitments on aid

effectiveness have been achieved since

the last High Level meeting in Accra in

2008.

The Busan meeting is a key

opportunity for governments to go

beyond promises and commit to more

effective, sustainable development

assistance in terms of its real impact

on the lives of all people.

Asian CSOs call forSustainable Development

BANGKOK, THAILAND (15 -17 August, 2011). About 50 CSOs from20 countries in Asia Pacific werepresent at the recently held RegionalConference on Development Models:Promoting a Transformative Agendafor Sustainable Development.



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The conference aimed to raise

awareness and knowledge among

southern CSOs and peoples

movements on the Key Issues in

Busan High Level Forum this coming

November, including building a newconsensus on development, one that is

sustainable. It was a vibrant affair

which included numerous exchanges

of ideas, experiences and practices as

it reflected on the challenges and ways

forward in tackling sustainable

development.

A two- day conference, the first day

affirmed the role of aid in

development where it is seen as an

integral factor while highlighting the

question for whom? especially in the

face of seemingly new Aid Donor

actors like China and India. Reality of

Aid Network Asia Pacific

Chairperson Antonio Tujan Jr., in his

key note speech, made the connection

between the High Level Forum 4 in

Busan and the Rio +20 or the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development.

The discussions were enriched by

inputs from Nurgul Djanaeva (Forum

of Womens NGOs of Kyrgyzstan), Lyn

Pano (Asia Pacific Research Network),

Suranjan Kodithuwakku (Green

Movement of Sri Lanka), Dr. Azra

Sayeed (APWLD) and Anselmo Lee

(Korean Civil Society Forum on

International Development) among

others.

The second day introduced thedifferent models of development and

how they work or do not work at all

just as Ms. Ujjaini Halim (IMSE)

maintained as she presented on the



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neoliberal model of development.

Other speakers were Kelly Haden of

UN ESCAP on Alternative

Development Approaches as well as

IBON Internationals Paul Quintos on

Sustainable Development.

New Delhi based intellectual Kavaljit

Singh (Public Interest Research

Centre) argued for China and Indias

potential to challenge the OECD in its

role but that it has to wait until both

countries have mapped out exactly

their own strategic objectives as aid

donors vis a vis being a developing

country still. According to him though,

it is clear that both China and India

have clear strategic interests, China

on natural resources in exchange for

infrastructure investments and India

on for a greater influence in the

region.

The conference produced theAsia

Pacific CSO Statement on

Development Cooperation for

Sustainable Development* which

highlights their key messages for

Busan on Private Sector fordevelopment, Climate Finance and

South- South Cooperation.

The Regional Conference was co-

organized by Reality of Aid Network,

Asia Pacific Research Network and

IBON International.

*The Peoples Statement on Sustainable Development

and Rio +20 and Action plan were produced on

August 17, 2011 in a back to back activity called A

Strategy Workshop on Rio +20. Both statements may

be downloaded at the ibon.org and realityofaid.org

websites.


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More CSOs endorse BA

Key Asks

As country outreach work continues in

different regions, more CSOs pen theirsupport and make recommendations to

strengthen the points of the BetterAid Key

Asks as their collective message in the

High Level Forum 4 in Busan.

China

CSOs in China held Past and Future

of Foreign ODA Workshop last July

8, 2011, which underscored and

highlighted details to some points in

the Key Asks, such as the inclusion of

the rights of differently-abled persons

and the elderly. CSOs also agreed on

including more discussions in the

issues of gender inequality as well as

the restriction of the private sectors

intervention and participation in the

issue of aid.

Benin

CSOs signed on and endorsed the CSOKey Asks and gave recommendations

in the recently held Benin National

Consultation on aid effectiveness last

5 August. Reflecting the Key Asks, the

Declaration drafted endorsed the eight

principles of Istanbul on the

development effectiveness of CSOs.



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Niger

The Niger National Consultation held

in Niamey saw 33 CSOs endorsing the

Key Asks. The workshop resulted inrecommending a framework for

dialogue and exchange among the

government and other stakeholders to

strengthen their partnership.

Argentina

The Argentine Consultation held on

August 2-3 at the capital Buenos Aires

resulted to 20 CSOs and members of

the academe endorsing the Key Asks.

Also present on the consultation weregovernment

Dominican Republic

In the recently conducted Dominican

Republic Consultation on August 18-

19, 2011, 40 signatures were penned

endorsing the Key Asks. These came

from 36 civil society organizations,

three from the academe and one from a

media personality.

Nicaragua

The two-day Nicaragua CSO Workshop

and National Multi Stakeholder

Consultation held in Managua last

August 25 and 26 added 120

signatures in support of the Key Asks.

Guatemala

25 CSO participants signed on andendorsed the Key Asks in the

recently held National Consultation

on Aid Effectiveness in Guatemala

City last August 30 and 31.


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cort newsletter issue 6

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