In an interview in the Independent on September 18th, Andrew Mitchell, UK Minister for International Development, stresses the importance of aid transparency ahead of the MDG Summit in New York.
Mitchell announced a UK-U.S. plan to ensure aid money delivers the best possible results. He went on to say that more results-based spending would convince a sceptical public of the value of aid.
A conversation between David Lane, President and CEO of ONE, and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah on 16th September addressed the important issue of coordination in U.S. foreign assistance. Part of the Bureau of Public Affairs’ “Conversations with America” series, Lane and Shah discussed how best to manage the 26 U.S government agencies involved in development programs.
Publish What You Fund hopes that the MDG Summit in New York points to improved integration of aid transparency in its strategy for achieving the goals. Some resources relating to aid transparency in the MDGs are collected below, and our analysis of the U.S. MDG Strategy can be read here.
On 14th September, Katie Nguyen asked “What have the Millennium Development Goals ever done for us?” Writing on the Reuters Humanitarian site, Alertnet, she acknowledges that although nobody can fault the aim of the MDGs, issues such as poor data have ‘provoked as much doubt as support’.
‘Still Our Common Interest: Commission for Africa Report 2010’ was published on Monday 13th September to examine what has happened since the 2005 report, ‘Our Common Interest’ which set out measures for the creation of a strong and prosperous Africa.
Alan Beattie writes in the Financial Times yesterday, 15th September, on the state of play in the aid business in the run up to the MDGs. He reports a shift in the international aid agenda has shifted from a focus on the quantity of aid to a language of results – a consequence of donors repeatedly missing their targets, coupled with fiscal tightening.
