The Paris Declaration was signed in 2005 with official donors committing to improve the effectiveness of their official development aid (ODA) towards greater reductions in poverty and inequality. The aid reform agenda promoted spans ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results and mutual accountability with a dozen indicators for monitoring progress. But despite all this and after all the attention given them, the most basic question can still be asked: what is it really about aid that makes it “ineffective” and unhelpful in reducing poverty and inequality?

Development aid should not be used to promote the developed countries’ “free trade” agenda, independent think-tank IBON Foundation said today, as World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy arrives in Manila to kick off an Asian Development Bank conference on Mobilizing Aid for Trade (AfT).

The Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) violates provisions of the 1987 Constitution which are vital to the country's future economic develop-ment, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

International financing and development aid institutions have been instrumental not only in providing outside financing for mining projects but also in steering Philippine national policies towards mining. Institutions such as the World Bank have figured prominently in promoting mining liberalization as a national policy and lobbying for the enactment of the current Mining Law. This liberalization is part of the structural adjustment programs began by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1980.

Conditionality on aid – specifically on budget support – should cease. This is a key message of an extensive new Joint evaluation of Multi Donor Budget Support in Ghana. According to the evaluation, there is “no evidence that (conditionality) is generating effective incentives for the faster implementation of reforms but it is undermining the quality of dialogue, generating unnecessarily high transaction costs and diverting attention away from the fundamental issues”.

The Paris Declaration was signed in 2005 by 107 countries, 26 International Organisations and 14 International Civil Society Organisations. This moved the aid effectiveness agenda beyond the general consensus around making aid more effective in combating poverty and accelerating progress in achieving the MDGS, reached at Rome in 2003, towards committing its signatories to take action to strengthen national ownership, aid alignment and harmonisation, mutual accountability and results orientation.

Following the need for a more effective aid regime, the Advisory Group (AG) on Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) programmed a CSO process towards Accra HLF 3 in 2008. This process comprised consultations and conferences among Civil Society Organizations in the national and regional level. It is intended to draw the perspectives of CSOs towards aid effectiveness together with CSOs concerns particularly to the Paris Declaration.

Global financial markets are in a state of turmoil as a result of a mortgage loan crisis originating from the US. Uncertainty prevails as no one knows how massive the losses in the US housing market will be and how extensively it has affected (and will affect) financial institutions across the globe. It remains to be seen how this financial crisis will play out and whether it will trigger a global economic downturn.

Despite commitments made by governments at international summits to reduce global hunger, more and more people still suffer from the lack of food and the number is increasing.

The emergency in Pakistan has revealed the truth not just about Musharraf’s moderate enlightenment, but also about the country’s liberal elite and the collaborationist political leaders, especially of the Pakistan People’s Party. So much for president-general Pervez Musharraf’s policy of moderate enlightenment. Or was it, enlightened moderation? One forgets. Whatever it was, it is probably buried under the events of the last few days following the announcement of the emergency/martial law in Pakistan. It is not just that an emergency has been enforced in Pakistan which is of importance, but its nature and form are also of considerable interest.

An ever more popular technology used to wirelessly connect computers to networks is now the in-thing in homes, offices and public places around the world. This liberating new technology is Wi-fi (wireless fidelity), or “wireless”, as it is sometimes called.

The Annual Eurodad Conference meeting in Olso had the privilege to welcome Minister Ricardo Patiño of Ecuador and a senior representative of the Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim.

Latest results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) indicate that Filipino families are getting poorer. But while this could be partially compensated by increasing public expenditures for social services, resources are being diverted to debt servicing or lost to corruption.