Caritas Internationalis

By Blandine Bouniol, Caritas Internationalis Policy Analyst

• Part 1: Accra aid assignment
• Part 2: We’ll always have Paris
• Part 3:On parallel lines
• Part 4: A flavour of goings on
• Part 5: Church perspectives
• Part 6: The real business begins
• Part 7: Reflections on effectiveness and coherence
• Part 8: Maybe we won’t always have Paris after all
• Part 9: A last minute so and so deal

Part 1: Accra aid assignment
30 August 2008

Caritas Internationalis is part a large ecumenical alliance bringing together African Churches and international faith-based organisations, including SECAM, AACC, CIDSE, APRODEV and ACT Development, representing millions of Christians in Africa and around the world, for the purpose of voicing our common concerns on aid effectiveness.

After months of intensive and long-distance joint planning and coordination work, the time had finally come to meet!

More than 50 delegates from organisations members of the ecumenical alliance made their way to Accra, to participate in the parallel forum for Civil Society Organisations on aid effectiveness on 31 August and 1 September.

The CSO parallel forum precedes the official high level forum on aid effectiveness. There hundreds of senior representatives from northern and southern governments and heads of international cooperation agencies, 80 representatives of civil society organisations, including four from our ecumenical alliance, will design a two-year roadmap to advance aid effectiveness, taking account of the relatively slow progress of the implementation of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, adopted in 2005.

Ahead of the CSO parallel forum, SECAM hosted an ecumenical preparatory meeting for all the ecumenical delegates present in Accra. More than 30 ecumenical representatives coming from more than 15 countries from Africa and Europe reiterated their endorsement of the African Churches’ joint ecumenical statement on aid effectiveness adopted by AACC and SECAM in May.

The ecumenical alliance is pushing for governments to provide space and mechanisms for a meaningful engagement of all development stakeholders, including the Churches, into the development processes at country and international levels. Without access to information, civil society is not able to engage and hold to account governments, hence our plea for greater transparency and inclusive national frameworks for accountability.

These were the messages that Bishop Dandala, Secretary General of AACC, and Simson Mwale, Programme Officer of SECAM, delivered at the Ghana TV.

During the dinner given in the SECAM office garden, the ecumenical delegates could enjoy traditional music and dances from Ghana. A good start for what promises to be an intense week of dialogue!
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Part 2: We’ll always have Paris
30 August 2008

When it comes to aid effectiveness, Civil Society Organisations or CSOs are not only critical of governments and development agencies. CSOs are actors of development themselves and recognize that effectiveness, accountability, transparency, impact also apply to them too.

However, the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness can’t be endorsed by CSOs, because some of its principles that are very relevant to donor-government relations would greatly endanger the autonomy and independence of CSOs.

This is why a new process was launched last summer on finding a consensus on development effectiveness, a concept broader than aid effectiveness. It could apply to CSOs and other stakeholders. Caritas Internationalis is actively involved in this process, as one of the 25 members composing the Global Facilitation Group (GFG).

The GFG met for the first time in Accra on 30 August and agreed a roadmap for what will be an extensive process of consultations at grass-root level on CSO effectiveness. The GFG will design an outreach strategy to engage CSOs at national and local levels, and facilitate a political dialogue with governments and donors on the matters of development effectiveness.
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Part 3: On parallel lines
31 August 2008

More than 6000 organisations from across the world participated in the consultation process in the run-up to the Third High Level Forum (HLF3) on Aid Effectiveness in Accra.

This two-day Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) Parallel Forum on aid effectiveness aimed to prepare the civil society’s message and demands to the High-Level Forum.

The Forum prepared a joint CSO statement that will be conveyed at the ministerial meeting during the high level forum. With their statement and their concrete proposals for amendments, CSO delegates hope to influence the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) that will be adopted by donors and partners countries as an outcome of the meeting.

The statement said that CSOs: “Call on officials present in Accra to respond with urgency. What we need in Accra are clear time-bound commitments to deliver real results for people on the ground, towards the eradication of poverty, inequality and social exclusion. This is a political not a technical challenge, and should be treated as such.”

The draft version of the Accra Agenda for Action as it stands today remains weak and lacks ambition.

Rene Grotenhuis of Cordaid, representing Caritas Internationalis at the High Level Forum, said “it would be better to have no Accra Agenda for Action, than an AAA with low standards that would discourage or possibly impede groups of donors and partner countries ready to take more ambitious targets for themselves”.

Caritas Internationalis would like to see stronger language in the AAA referring to multi-stakeholders accountability systems, in which CSOs will be meaningfully involved.

We are also advocating for the recognition of the need to disclose information relating to aid flows regularly and systematically to citizens.

To avoid dependence on aid, we are advocating for a broader agenda on development effectiveness, that will create links between effective aid and just trade, debt cancellation, financing for development, gender equality, environment sustainability, respect for human rights.

This is what, in Caritas, we call the integral human development.

Members of the ecumenical alliance put our specific proposals to Jan Cedergran, Chair of the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, representatives of the European Commission, and of the French Delegation/EU Presidency at side meetings.

Justin Kilcullen, from Trocaire (Caritas Ireland) representing CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development was also invited as the sole representative of civil society at the reception hosted by the EU Presidency at the French embassy, gathering all European delegations at the High Level Forum.
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Part 4: A flavour of goings on
31 August 2008

The CSO Parallel Forum was a chance for all participants coming from all over the world to share their views and experiences on topics relating to aid effectiveness.

From the ecumenical alliance, Gwen Berge of Norwegian Church Aid representing ACT Development shared a workshop focusing on harmonization, one of the principles in the Paris Declaration. Peter Lanzet of EED, part of the ecumenical alliance, provided inputs with insights from Germany.

Direct budget support is often highlighted as a possible response to the lack of ownership and harmonization at country level. Participants provided diverse opinions regarding the benefits of direct budget support regarding democracy and CSO engagement. Indeed, with more funds directly channelled directly through national budget, there may be fewer funds available for local CSOs, especially in context where the relations between the government and CSOs are difficult.

A participant also pointed that harmonization should be first and foremost with international standards and these international treaties and conventions, including human rights conventions, that donors and governments have signed.

Rene Grotenhuis of Cordaid, representing Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE, chaired a workshop on mutual accountability. He opened the session by saying that “people are not object, but subject and bearer of development”.

Mwansa Njelesami from EJN South Africa, a member of the ecumenical alliance, stressed that the Paris Declaration does not recognize the power imbalances between donors and partner governments, which has created a situation of upwards accountability, from partner governments towards their donors, rather than a downwards accountability towards the citizens.

She explained how in Zambia and Malawi, Church organisations were able to look into how funds have been spent, in collaboration with the national government. But this is unfortunately not always possible when the governments and donors are not disclosing information in a systematic way.

Participants also highlighted the need to hold multinational companies accountable for their behaviour in developing countries, which can have adverse effects on development and local communities’ livelihoods. Information regarding agreements between governments and multinational companies should be made available to citizens.

Accountability is also a linked to the debt debate. Some donors and lenders are co-responsible for the high level of debt of some developing countries and they should be held accountable for this.

Participants agreed that citizen’s access to information and the right to information is at the centre of the accountability debate. Information on aid flows should be made available regularly and systematically to CSOs, but also information should vulgarised so that ordinary citizens have a chance to understand it.

At the end of the first day, an ecumenical worship service was given in the main hall of the CSO Forum. Bishop Dandala led the service and Metropolitan Archbishop of Kumasi Ghana, Most Rev. Thomas Mensah, offered to the audience his perspectives on aid effectiveness, with a special focus on situation of fragilities and conflict. During the service, we could hear messages from the health workers, the education workers, the agricultural workers and the youth. The colourful Ghanaian choir enchanted the congregation.
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Part 5: Church perspectives
31 August 2008

On the second day, the CSO Forum provided space and time for proposals of thematic workshops. The ecumenical alliance proposed a workshop entitled “making aid accountable: Church perspectives on aid and development monitoring”.

The workshop was opened by Archbishop Thomas Mensah of Kumasi who stressed that the Church is active in playing a complementary role to the government and the international community in development efforts.

Humphrey Mulemba presented the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection experience in Zambia in monitoring public expenditure as a way to hold government accountable.

JCTR developed a debt resource monitoring manual for citizens to track public expenditure and hold government accountable for the use of the public resources. The project is still in its infancy but it shows promise of stimulating community participation.

Brice Mackosso related the experience of Justice and Peace Commission in Congo Brazzaville in joining the Publish What You Pay campaign, targeting the multinational oil companies operating in the country.

The national authorities demonstrated hostility and sent some activists in jail. Thanks to the mobilization of bishop conferences in different counties and continents, and the support of the World Bank, they were released.

Today, the Justice and Peace Commission carried its monitoring activities and advocacy work to hold accountable the government and the multinational extractive corporations.

Vincent Edoku explained how Caritas Uganda is involved in initiatives centred on promoting good governance and fighting corruption.
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Part 6: The real business begins
2 September 2008

The Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness gathers more than a thousand delegates from all over the world representing donor governments, aid recipient governments, national and international development agencies, international financial institutions, members of parliaments, as well as representatives of the civil society.

A first surprise from this Forum is that although only 80 accreditations were originally granted to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) representatives (including one to Caritas Internationals), the pro-activeness of CSOs paid off and more representatives were taken on board in their national delegations. Eventually, the total number of participants from the civil society could be has large as 150.

Capitalizing on the energy mobilized during the CSO Parallel Forum, CSO representatives have embraced this Forum with a sense of urgency and momentum. CSOs really dominated the debates of the round tables discussions. CSO representatives provided relevant evidences of good and bad practices and asked decisive questions demanding explanations to institutional officials.

With the exception of a government delegate from Africa who questioned the legitimacy of CSOs, it was felt that the CSO messages were generally well received.

Such an acceptance leaves many CSO participants puzzled and begin to wonder if the round tables discussions are not a diversion from the real negotiations scene, taking place behind closed doors amongst governments and agencies only.

There seems to be very limited consensus on the Accra Agenda for Action that will come out of the Forum. Controversial issues include the introduction of an obligation to untie food aid, the setting of more ambitious targets for aid predictability, the lifting of aid conditions.

A second surprise is that the parliamentarian delegation has shrunk because of the decision of the European Parliament Members not to attend the Forum, arguing that parliamentarians have not been part of the Paris Declaration process enough. The lack of engagement of parliaments and the lack of consideration for their instrumental role in implementing the principled of ownership and mutual accountability were underlined by different delegates in different sessions.

Overall, the nature of the talks and exchanges of this first day were fairly technical; the political dimension of aid policy is being disregarded. Charles Mutasa from the African debt-focused NGO, AFRODAD, said at the round table on harmonisation, “Aid effectiveness is not the most important issue in Africa, China is.”
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Part 7: Reflections on effectiveness and coherence
3 September 2008

Effectiveness means impact, notably. In the context of aid effectiveness, the impact we are talking about is people-centre sustainable development; it is about enlarging people’s opportunities, raising people’s living standards, improving people’s living conditions and environment, ensuring people’s ability to exercise their rights, in a sustainable manner.

Aid alone cannot achieve this impact, if it is not planned and implemented in consideration of the many other policies and instruments that affect a country development. Aid must be designed in a broader view that would link together effective aid, sustainable financing, just trade, debt relief, socially responsible corporate agreements, for ‘development effectiveness’.

For donors, the risk is to give with one hand what they take back with the other hand. To avoid this too familiar situation, donors must untie their aid and technical assistance, and ensure more coherence between all external policies around the sole objective of development. This is what we call policy coherence for development.

Policy coherence for development is applicable to partner countries. One important aspect of it, at national level, is the coherence, the lack of it, between the national development strategies and the agreements signed with multinational companies, especially in the area of extractive sectors (oil, copper, diamond). As we heard from our colleagues in the CSO Forum, in many countries of Africa, such as Zambia and Congo Brazzaville, multinational extractive industries operations had very adverse effects and result in an impoverishment of local communities.
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Part 8: Maybe we won’t always have Paris after all
03.09.08

The good thing about today is that dissatisfaction is not only a thing for civil society organisations; but also for ministers!

Many ministers due to finalise and sign the Accra Agenda of Action (AAA) tomorrow, arrived in the Ghanaian capital in the evening to attend the ministerial dinner hosted by the Ghana President. Ministers until then had not been involved in the negotiations, led by their technical staff and what ministers found upon their arrival, was a deadlock situation.

Thus, at technical level, the European Union, Japan, the World Bank and the United States would not compromise on their positions. The EU let the rumour go that they would issue a separate a statement at the end of the Forum, to demonstrate their willingness to go beyond the too weak AAA on specific issues, including the use of country systems and harmonisation, promoting division of labour. Partner countries remained generally silent. African ones showed a lack of coordination and divisions among themselves. Brazil voiced their dissatisfaction with the process which they felt was not inclusive enough. They tried to get other partner countries of Latin America to sign a common separate statement.

At 5.30pm, a general sentiment of failure was blowing in the Accra Conference Centre. René Grotenhuis, representing Caritas Internationalis, evoked an “Agenda for Inaction” announcing “the death of the Paris Declaration”.

But we heard just before the ministerial dinner started that negotiations were re-opened. Many ministers indeed were too unhappy with the AAA as it stood and the absence of room for political manoeuvre.

This provided a light of hope for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). And since a CSO representative was to read out a CSO statement at the ministerial dinner, there was still a chance to influence the AAA.
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Part 9: A last minute so and so deal
4 September 2008

As we reached the conference centre today, we had no news about the outcome of the ministerial negotiations.

Apparently, negotiators had stayed at the table until 3.am and met again early in the morning.

Nothing much filtered out of the negotiation room, where Civil Society Organisations are not invited. We still hadn’t seen any text but hope starting growing when the French representative of the EU Presidency expressed his content and optimism.

Just after him, Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development, said “With this Accra Agenda for Action, we have an operational framework that will allow us to turn our promises into concrete actions”.

Finally, the best kept secret was released and copies were distributed. A first look at it and indeed, it is obviously a much improved version last the previous ones. The language is stronger on different aspects.

The use of country systems has become “the first option for aid programme” and if donors decide not to use them, they will have to justify the reasons.

The role of civil society “as independent development actors in their own right” and of parliaments is recognised throughout the Agenda.
However, the Agenda includes only few time bound actions.

The Forum failed to set more ambitious targets for phasing out tied aid, which creates a virtuous loop by which aid goes back to donor countries. No targets either were set to improve aid predictability, which would allow partner countries to plan better their development process.

Tomorrow will start the hard work ahead of us, Churches and CSOs to advocate for monitoring and accompanying the implementation of the Agenda.

No more words. Action!
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