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.

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.

The Advisory Group specifically identified three outcomes for these activities:

1.  Better understanding and recognition of the roles of civil society organizations (CSOs) as development actors and as part of the international aid architecture and engagement of CSOs in general discussions of aid effectiveness (recognition and voice);

2.  Improved understanding of the applicability and limitations of the Paris Declaration for addressing issues of aid effectiveness of importance to CSOs, including how CSOs can better contribute to aid effectiveness (applying and enriching the international aid effectiveness agenda); and

3.  Improved understanding of good practice relating to civil society and aid effectiveness by CSOs themselves, by donors and by developing country governments (lessons of good practice).

Starting September of this year, as mandated by the AG on CSOs and Aid Effectiveness, the Reality of Aid Network together with its local partners organized five regional workshops held in the Southern regions.

Regional workshops were held for the regions of Asia (North, Central and East) and The Pacific (Hanoi, Viet Nam); South and West Asia (Kathmandu, Nepal) ; West, Central and North Africa (Cotonou, Benin); East and Southern Africa (Lusaka, Zambia); and the Americas (Managua, Nicaragua).

The regional workshops provided an avenue for dialogues among Southern CSO platforms as well as international NGOs, donor agencies and government representatives. The agenda included plenary sessions where case studies/reports were presented by the CSOs which brought the participants into deeper understanding in the pressing issue of aid effectiveness and the Paris Declaration, and on how they can participate in the crucial processes towards Accra High Level Forum in 2008.

In these events, the Southern CSOs were able to register their issues and concerns on the prevailing aid regime and their issues and concerns on aid effectiveness and the Paris Declaration.

The consultations proved that Southern CSOs had a relatively limited understanding of the Paris Declaration; however, despite this, it cannot be denied that they have a strong and broad sense of aid effectiveness. The Paris Declaration, according to Southern CSOs, is welcomed as a step toward aid effectiveness although lacking strength with provisions of delivering aid effectively.

In the proposition of Southern CSOs, the central issue that should be pursued towards aid effectiveness is the strengthening of Democratic Ownership, Rights-based Development, National Development and Gender Equality.

The Paris Declaration focused on the policies which are narrowly shaped from donor-government perspectives. It discounted the recipients of aid which are those belonging in the grassroots and the marginalized, sectors and it did not provide proper acknowledgment to the role of civil society organizations which play crucial role as development actors.

The Paris Declaration is weak on not setting explicit mechanisms on how accountability shall be imposed on donors and government. Democratic ownership also posed a large issue on the part of the CSOs as they expressed their experiences with the donor led aid policies and programs. The genuine purpose of aid is not being fully recognized because this is being hampered by donor serving interests.

Aid management was also questioned in the Paris Declaration as it did not provide strong commitment on the part of donor and government particularly on the issue of untying of aid. The Paris Declaration even has no target to eliminate or reduce economic policy conditionality.

CSOs contend that for the Paris Declaration to be applicable in its purpose of aid effectiveness, it should first recognize CSOs’ role not only as development actors but moreso within the context of governance and the explicit social representation of different sectors of society from grassroots and all marginalized sectors.

CSOs also reiterated that donors and government should also acknowledge the crucial role of CSOs as effective component in the delivery of service to the poor and their role in social transformation.

These critical and important points will be deliberated by the AG and will be proposed to the Working Party to address CSOs and Aid Effectiveness at the High Level Forum in Accra and in the succeeding processes.

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