ODI briefing paper: Aid Effectiveness Through the Recipient Lens

Here is a great Overseas Development Institute briefing paper on ‘Aid Effectiveness through the recipient lens’ published in November 2009 which we missed the first time round (apologies). It argues that the impact of aid depends upon ‘procedures going beyond Paris and Accra’.

Whilst the best-practice principles of the Paris and Accra resolutions are a prerequisite for effective aid, this paper suggests that recipient governments consider these principles too narrow and insufficient for addressing the aid effectiveness challenges they face. The paper is based on interviews with government officials in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, which were added to previous relevant ODI research on stakeholder perceptions of aid. A key theme which emerged was that terms such as ‘predictability’ and ‘transparency’ lacked depth and definition, and that important procedures essential to donor accountability had not been fully captured, or yet agreed upon. We would agree and have tried to define what aid transparency is in our Publish What You Fund principles.

Read the briefing paper here.