How donors get aid effectiveness wrong and what they should do instead: Reflections from Tanzania

1. How donors get aid effectiveness wrong and what they should do instead:Reflections from Tanzania Rakesh Rajani, Independent Africa Canada Forum/CIDA Consultation Ottawa, 4 October 2007

2. Outline of presentation • Six things donors do poorly • (HakiElimu example) • Three concluding reflections

3. 1. Don’t conflate method with results • Paris principles are about how to disburse aid and manage aid relationships, not change on the ground • Keep this in perspective • Link method with purpose and results • Be open to debate and critique, avoid new orthodoxies and fundamentalisms • Avoid harmonization turning into monopoly of thought

4. 2. Apply Paris principles to engagement with CSOs • A core idea behind the Paris agenda is to reduce multiple demands on governments so that they can get on with their agenda. • CSOs need the same type of support • Yet donors continue to apply a double standard: • Treat CSOs as ‘contractors’ • Require separate proposals, reports and timeframes • CSOs have to fit donors and not vice versa

5. 3. Rethink Accountability • ‘When-in-doubt-add-a-requirement’ reflects a lack of imagination • Filling in too many boxes creates a mechanical mindset that undermines responsiveness and a strategic posture • Onerous reporting drains time from implementation, often of the best people • Requirements passed down the chain • Illusion of accountability through bean counting that creates an incentive to lie

6. 4. Avoid the planning fetish • Good development practice/’strategy’ is an ability to read the signs and respond, but... • Over-planning promotes a rigidity that undermines responsiveness and creativity • Planning is not how it works – LG PEFAR, business (on this Bill Easterly is spot on) • Instead ask CSOs to be clear about the overall goals and then require them to be concrete when reporting

7. 3/4. HakiElimu approach • One plan, one budget, one report • Joint MOU that sets the terms/principles • Multi-year commitment, with predictable annual disbursements • Annual narrative (analytical) and externally audited financial report • Half year progress brief (against plan) • Twice year joint donor/HakiElimu meetings instead of bilateral missions

8. 5. Real accountability • Shift accountability from donors to constituencies/citizens (and donors get their satisfaction from the quality of this) • Transparency, public disclosure and access to information essential • Make internal learning the primary motivation for M&E • Create incentives that reward self-critical, reflective practice and learning

9. 6. Donors should ‘do no harm’ • There is an inevitable conflict of interest and incentive among governments and donors to make things look good • Donors should not undermine local voices through rosy pronouncements • Focus on creating a level playing field for domestic accountability, esp. in making information available and fair rules of the game • Develop/implement independent evaluation standards (ref. to CGD work on this) • As it gets political, donors need to know how to handle the heat/avoid blunt aid withdrawal

10. Conclusion 1: the present state • CIDA and Canadian CSOs are stuck in a runaway train • Many are responding from a place of fear, uncertainty , lack of confidence • An edge of desperation about the situation but dialogue unable to address it • An illusion of progress that barely masks an erosion of strategy and good practice

11. Conclusion 2: what is needed • Leadership on both sides, able to: • Situate the Paris agenda and role of CSOs within sound development practice • Recast accountability to be less onerous, deeper, more effective, and towards citizens • Promotes a culture of real learning and intellectual ferment that can rise above the plumbing • Able to get outside a technocratic box and develop a keen understanding of (political) drivers of change

12. Conclusion 3: Eyes on the prize • At heart development is about citizen agency: the ability of citizens to know and act, to make things happen rather than just have things happen to them • This needs to be the key yardstick of success and core of RBM • CSOs need to reclaim and renew this role (rather than clamor to be mere conduits of aid); CIDA needs to challenge Canadian CSOs on this rather than narrow concerns