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Atlantic-community.org members unite in their call for greater transparency in the aid sector. A lack of accountability and corruption pose the greatest hurdles to aid effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ultimately, aid programs should seek to place the responsibility for the fight against poverty into the hands of the recipient countries. Hence, an index of aid effectiveness needs to be put online, and aid programs should strive to incorporate African voices to a greater extent. The programs must focus on building local economies and infrastructures in order to create sustainable economic growth. The planning process ought to include a viable aid exit strategy.

1. Donor organizations need to publish an online index of aid effectiveness.
Atlantic-community.org members cite poor measurement of aid activities and lack of definable and determinable goals and strategy as serious impediments to transparency (Wathne, Rusila).  Whereas information abounds on how much money is poured into aid, accessible documentation on how that money is actually spent is poor (Theiler, Rusila). Therefore, an index of aid effectiveness should be put online, featuring details on aid expenditures and the outcomes of programs. The site recovery.gov, a transparency measure by the US government that tracks how stimulus money is spent, could serve as a model for such an index (Barder). The database would publish information on how individual countries, international organizations, and NGOs allocate funds.  It would also chronicle project outcomes in order to hold aid donors accountable to those they are serving. Those programs that fail to produce results should either be forced to adapt or get phased out (Barder). Methods used by organizations like Transparency International could also be helpful in tracking how much aid is lost due to corruption (Hunter). While the index should remain voluntary, participating donors should be obliged to render a complete account of their activities (Tukhtabaev). However, donors will only respond to requests for more transparency if civil society initiatives exert more pressure (Schwegmann).

2.  Aid programs must amplify and incorporate African voices.
The designing and implementation of aid programs are too often detached from the people they are trying to help (Arsene). To circumvent the challenges inefficient and corrupt governments pose (Brett), aid donors should work to empower citizens by getting their direct feedback and making alterations to aid programs accordingly (Rusila). Donors should invest in programs that focus on job creation (McCabe) and infrastructure - both objectives are part of the critical task of promoting eventual self-sufficiency.  For example, reforestation and commercial tree plantations could lead to the establishment of a viable forestry industry in Africa (Celik). Similar to the Recovery and Reinvestment Act established in the United States, donors need to focus on small public works projects (Weiss).  This would empower Africans by providing them with employment opportunities and giving them a stake in their future.  Most importantly, this would also promote sustainable economic development as part of the aid exit strategy. Recipients would thus be able to obtain the expertise and management capabilities needed for taking development into their own hands. To reverse the negative consequences of the "brain drain," bilateral and multilateral donor organizations should consult with Africans living outside of Africa.  Members of the African Diaspora have critical insight into the challenges on the continent based on their first-rate education and intimate knowledge of the challenges facing African nations (Zachary).

3. An aid exit strategy should be a part of the planning process.
Aid at its current levels is ultimately unsustainable. Greater reliance on local experts is needed to promote "country-owned" development. African nations must assume responsibility for their own development (Adams). What is needed is an exit strategy, with aid amounting to no more than 2% GDP and targeted at projects for which the local government is providing the bulk of the funding (McPherson).  US legislation specifically needs to be changed so that agricultural projects can be promoted (Arsene).

Atlantic Memos showcase the best ideas and arguments from debates in the Open Think Tank on www.atlantic-community.org. Please take the next step and help us spread the word. You can download a PDF copy of this Atlantic Memo to distribute to your local or national decision-makers. The recommendations expressed above come from your Atlantic Community.

September 13, 2010

Jessica Thomas, Center for Global Affairs, New York University, (3)

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Heeding these recommendations relating to aid in Africa would truly bring value and effectiveness to aid programs aimed at supporting the continent. Very real problems exist throughout the African continent, and many of these problems can be both addressed and alleviated through the assistance of foreign aid. However, for foreign aid to avoid being seen as a modern-day form of colonialism or the spread of Western cultural and political domination, these recommendations must be implemented.

First of the recommendations stresses the importance of transparency. Bringing to light the amount of aid distributed for specific programs and making public the outcomes and effectiveness of those programs would indeed make donors more accountable to other donors, the international community and most importantly the people whom they serve. Transparency related to the effectiveness of the aid programs would also assure that failing programs are phased out (because they are, in effect, a waste of foreign aid), as well as expose corruption in receiving governments.

The second and third recommendations were similarly as strong because they emphasize empowerment of the African people rather than culturally insensitive domination over them. To "amplify and incorporate African voices" and plan an "aid exit strategy" would allow the recipients of the aid to take ownership of programs and equip the natives in targeted communities with the resources to make the programs sustainable through their cultural appropriateness and relevance in those specific communities.

Tags: | Three First Steps to Better Foreign Aid |

October 7, 2010

Meital Tzobotaro, Center for Global Affairs, NYU

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Memo 24 brought some important suggestions to the table. In think the importance of transparency is definitely at the top of list, however, my perspective is a bit different.

It is true that all parties involved should be held accountable, US Government included.
One of the most striking memories of my experience working with the US government abroad is the lack of transparency and the extent that partners (those who actually execute the work on the ground) are allowed to benefit from Aid. In some cases, partners are able to negotiate an extremely high overhead costs from the beginning, which reduces the actual aid reaching the project by as much as 46%! This for me what a huge disappointment with the way we conduct our aid efforts.

My second point is that aid, at the end of the day, is often times targeted at alleviating the quality of life of the inhabitants of the recipient country. This, to me, poses a challenge when this memo recommends phasing out aid from corrupt government. This sounds like collective punishment, which unfortunately does not solve the problem. At this point, i believe our investment and involvement abroad is too big to recommend just phasing out for non-compliance. We created a dependency on our aid. Particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa, the US Governments assistance is crucial for providing life saving medications such as antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Phasing out our aid will mean cutting the supply of many of those drugs, especially in the case of HIV/AIDS since US Government assistance composes up to 90% of that budget.

I believe the ideas in this memo are good, but that more innovative ideas for non-compliance should be explored. Non-compliance should be dealt with at a governmental level, preferably without punishing the targeted audience - its citizens.

November 1, 2010

Mary Ellen Morris-Delaney, New York University, Center for Global Affairs, SCPS, Bronze Contributor (12)

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I especially agree with point #2 of the memo. Governmental accountability and local ownership of initialtives, which should include local involvement in the planning, implementation and accountability aspects, is key to the success of any development effort. There are many examples of grass roots programs which have served local populations, but these are not usually in conjunction with the government or NGOs.

The issue of providing development aid which produces lasting results is not only a problem in Africa. Perhaps it is time for us to take a step back and re-examine the North's approach to development aid on a more holistic level. Where has the provision of development aid worked? What made this area/country different? How can we recreate those scenarios and modify them in ways that meet local development needs? Strides have been made when focusing on targets such as malaria and polio; and microfinance/microloans have spurred entrepreneurship and economic growth on a very small scale, but, outside of China (which has controlled its own process), the global level of poverty has not materially improved. Considering the $Billions spent on these efforts year after year, I think it is time for a new approach. The online index of aid effectiveness would be a good start for developing this new strategy, provided that the information is timely, reliable and comparable across organizations. The focus of this database should not be as a marketing tool to attract new donors (although that is important), but a means of identifying pros/cons of strategies, current successes, and also failures from which we can all learn and improve.

December 1, 2010

Leimer Tejeda, New York University, Bronze Contributor (23)

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I really like the idea of creating an Online Index to keep track of the Effectiveness of Aid in Africa and other aid recipient countries. Often times, many of us have criticized aid as not being the ultimate solution for long term development. However, this memo brings up a few good points that can actually enhance aid operations instead of completely resorting to other measures. As the comments above stated, the issue of accountability is one of the greatest problems with aid. I also believe, though, that the execution of the programs that are receipts of aid is at fault. This, in essence, is a two fold issue; 1) the people managing these programs are not often the best trained and equipped 2) the actual execution of the program needs to be more commercial, if you will, in its approach.

I really like the suggestion of having people from the home country living abroad become involved in solving the problems that their countries face. I also think that just as public corporations are pressured to drive and publish results, donor countries and organizations should hold recipient countries to the same level of accountability and transparency. Having a solid exit strategy is one of the many steps that can be taken by donor countries/ organization to improve the manner in which these programs are managed, but more strategic ways of managing aid from start to exit should be considered to reach its maximum effectiveness.

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