DEPARTMENT FOR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT News Release issued by COI News
Distribution Service. 4 September 2008
A GLOBAL
initiative to make overseas aid work better in helping poor people
and to make it easier for them and their governments to track how
aid is spent is being unveiled today (Thurs) by International
Development Secretary Douglas Alexander.
The UK is leading international efforts to improve openness in
the way aid is delivered to poorer countries and to increase
scrutiny over how it is spent.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative would also allow
the governments of poor countries to plan more effectively by
guaranteeing when aid would be delivered to them.
At a High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, Mr
Alexander is proposing that all donors should agree a set of
common standards against which they can be judged.
The UK believes donors should agree to give:
* Full and detailed information on all aid in each country
affected;
* Details and costs of individual projects and their
aims; and
* Reliable information on future aid to improve
planning by recipient governments.
The initiative was launched with the backing of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, European
Commission, the Hewlett Foundation and a number of leading
aid-providing countries.
Mr Alexander said: "We see this as an important first step
to increase certainty for both donors and the countries receiving aid.
"The impact of aid in relieving poverty can be greatly
increased if everyone can see where the money's coming from,
who is spending it and what it should be achieving.
"The UK is always vigilant against the misuse of aid and
this initiative will be a crucial tool in the fight against it. If
local people can see where aid should be going and question
whether it has been effective the scope for bribery and corruption
is greatly reduced."
The initiative is also aimed at increasing certainty for poor
countries as to how much aid they can expect and when it will be
paid. Failure to deliver aid on time has been identified by the
international community as a key factor in hampering development
work and forcing recipient governments to increase their debts to
cover shortfalls.
The initiative is being launched at the HLF by Mr Alexander,
Kemal Dervis, Head of UNDP, James Musconi, Finance Minister of
Rwanda, and Kumi Naidoo, honorary president of Civicus.
Notes to editors
1. The High Level Forum in Accra aims to refocus international
attention on the need to meet the Millennium Development Goals to
reduce global poverty.
2. The transparency initiative is expected to be joined by
growing numbers of international donors and to be in place by the
end of 2009.
3. In Uganda, an information campaign of the type envisaged about
education programmes helped increase the share of funds reaching
schools from 20 per cent in 1995 to 80 per cent in 2001.
4. The already existing Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative, an agreement which covers mining, gas and oil, has
helped Nigeria increase its revenue collection by more than £500 million.
ENDS
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people in the world today, over 1 billion people, live in poverty
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