European level work on Aid Effectiveness
AidWatch
The CONCORD "AidWatch" Initiative monitors and advocates on the quantity and quality of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by European Member States and the European Commission. Through CONCORD, it represents civil society organisations (CSOs) working on the quantity and quality of aid across the 27 Member States of the European Union. AidWatch is a key vehicle for European CSO work issues of aid quantity and quality, and links its members into the international level work on aid effectiveness through its work with the CSO International Steering Group. For more information on CSO International Steering Group see www.betteraid.org.
Each spring, an AidWatch report on the quantity and quality of European aid is produced. Click here to read the 2008 information on “No Time to Waste: European governments behind schedule on aid quantity and quality”.
Each autumn, the AidWatch Initiative also holds an annual seminar for AidWatch members, to review its work and identify upcoming policy change priorities for the coming year.
The annual AidWatch seminar 2008 will be taking place on 20th-21st October 2008 in Brussels. Please check here again in September for updated information. For further information please contact jasmine.burnley@concordeurope.org
CONCORD position on Aid Effectiveness
2008 is a crucial year in the fight against global poverty. Governments from across the world are meeting at a ‘High Level Forum’ in Accra, Ghana in September to assess whether international aid is playing an effective role in delivering human rights for all. Soon afterwards the UN summit in Doha will examine the broader ‘Financing for Development’ agenda, of which aid is a part, but which also includes other critical issues for international development, such as international finance, trade and debt.
The European Union provides the majority of the world’s aid, giving it a crucial leadership role in the fight against global poverty. It also has a solemn responsibility to do all it can to make sure the aid it provides is as effective as possible at reducing poverty and ensuring rights for all.
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are therefore calling on the European Union (EU) to grasp the opportunity for leadership that 2008 provides, and agree to a set of concrete EU targets to improve aid from member states and European institutions. If necessary, these should go beyond at the commitments made at international fora such as Accra. This would follow existing precedents, and allow EU aid to become a global benchmark for quality.
CSOs make the following specific recommendations, for EU governments and institutions:
1. The EU should respect real democratic ownership of the development process, and allow partner countries to be in the driving seat by:
- Untying all EU aid to all countries;
- Phasing out economic policy conditionality.
2. The EU should radically improve its accountability, particularly to developing countries and their citizens by:
- making monitoring and evaluation of aid truly independent;
- establishing a complaints mechanism open to aid recipients;
- supporting in-country mechanisms for holding donors to account.
3. The EU should commit to good practice standards of openness and transparency of their aid budgets and activities.
4. The EU should agree upon new, more ambitious targets to make multi-year, predictable and guaranteed aid commitments based on clear and transparent criteria.
5. The EU should reform its technical assistance – money spent on consultants, research and training - to respond to national priorities and build genuine capacity in partner countries.
Aid reform is, of course, only one of the steps that the European Union must take. Making its trade, security, migration, agriculture and other policies coherently work to benefit developing countries and promoting a fair international financial and trade system in favour of development remain huge challenges.
With the support of the European Union 
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