AIMS

1. AIMS February 2009

2. AIMS rationale – Ownership & Mutual Accountability • Timely, accurate and comprehensive information on current and future aid flows is essential for country ownership over theirdevelopment processes • Faced with incomplete information on aid flows, national governments are unable to plan, monitor and account for the use of resources in an effective mannerwhich affects domestic accountability.

3. Recognition that transparency of aid information promotes more effective partnerships, and accelerates development and poverty reduction by increasing accountability and ownership, reducing corruption, and improving service delivery

4. Deployment • Increasing number of partner countries (about 60) are implementing national aid information management systems (AIMS). • Systems generally take the form of a database in which data on commitments and disbursements of ODA are recorded, and the national aid portfolio can be analysed using a number of variables (donor, sector, implementing partner, geographical location…). • The majority of these systems make use of internet technologies to enable donors or implementers to input data directly, and to make the data and analysis tools widely available (within government, or very often to the general public).

5. Lessons • A number of countries raised problems in obtaining comprehensive, detailed information on likely disbursements of aid to feed into the budget preparation process (PD 2008 Survey). • The broader challenge is that of democratic governance in aid-dependent countries and in data on aid flows to inform national planning, budgeting and accounting processes

6. Lessons • Despite putting in place information management systems, partner country officials frequently report that these systems are underused, and that coverage on aid flows is at best partial. • In many instances, AIMS are implemented, but their integration into broader business processes on both the government and donor side is not systematic.

7. Lessons • A national AIMS is often perceived to be “owned” by the government institution within which it is located or managed and its use across government remains limited. • For donors, the use of national AIMS can be felt to entail burdensome data entry, duplicating some of the information capture and management tasks required by the donor’s own operational processes and procedures.

8. IATI • The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) was launched at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Sept 2008), and seeks to address the current challenges facing a range of development stakeholders (donors, programme country governments, civil society, academia) in the sharing and use of information on development assistance.

9. Cont. • IATI aims to deliver a step shift in public availability and accessibility of information on aid flows and activities, globally. • The IATI commits donors to improving transparency by agreeing a set of common information standards applicable to all aid flows. This will help to improve aid effectiveness and accountability, fight corruption, and strengthen planning and budgeting processes in partner countries. It also seeks to support the capacity of partner countries in improving aid monitoring, transparency and accountability. I am attaching relevant documents.

10. DAD in RwandaChallenges, Solutions and Lessons Video Conference w/ BDP 13 February 2009 By: Dereck Rusagara AIMS Specialist UNDP / Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning Kigali, RWANDA.

11. Background on DAD Rwanda • Operational since March 2006 • Developed with the aim of achieving the following: • Enable the GoR to drive the processes of aid management by: • Establishing a single repository of all ODA data in Rwanda and replace old, inefficient systems • Use the tool to monitor ODA and its utilisation • Enable the GoR to do “gap analyses”, facilitate planning process and resource mobilisation • Institutionalise transparency & accountability between GoR & DPs

12. Status of DAD Rwanda • Approx. 90% of resident donors reporting via DAD Rwanda; • Increasing data coverage of ODA; • Administrators undergone IDM Training (Nov 2008); • Reviewing prototype of Donor Profile & PD (DPAF) indicators. • Contractual/Financial responsibilities of the DAD gradually being handed over to GoR.

13. Implementation challenges to date • Insufficient usage of DAD (Govt. & DPs); • Quality of ODA data still needs improvement; • Integration with IFMIS (SmartGov) – planned for 2009. • Buy in from rest of MINECOFIN & GoR to utilise the DAD.

14. Solutions employed • Integration with legacy system(s) (SmartGov) & work with relative modules within. • Develop other useful modules that will increase usage of DAD (e.g. Donor Profile module that will encompass PD indicator monitoring). • Continued roll out of access to Line Ministries (Directors of Planning). • Produce quarterly reports for publication to make use of peer pressure amongst donors. • Emerging needs as Rwanda engages with IATI?

15. Lessons learnt? • System needs to be located within adequate and dedicated staffing structure. • Engage potential stakeholders on a regular basis (maintain momentum & buy in). • Share experiences with other countries. • Peer pressure works: quality and coverage of data is improved by regular publication and dissemination. • Political and govt leadership is crucial for the success of such a system’s implementation.

16. Case Study: The Aid Management Platform (AMP) in Tanzania Presentation to UNDP February 13, 2009 Increasing Effectiveness, Measuring Progress, Achieving Results

17. Aid Management Platform • Created by the Development Gateway in partnership with the OECD, UNDP, World Bank, and the governments of Ethiopia and India • Operational in 10 countries • Emphasis on capacity building and sustainability

18. Country Context: Tanzania • Net ODA: US$2.8 billion, or 17% of GNI, in 2007 (OECD) • About 40 active donor agencies • Despite high aid volume and good performance on Paris Indicators, ODA information before AMP was weak 2006 Paris Declaration Survey Results

19. Knowledge Sharing • South-South knowledge sharing is a key AMP objective • GoT decided to adopt AMP after visiting Ethiopia (along with delegations from Burkina Faso and Malawi) • GoE staff assisted in AMP Tanzania implementation; Tanzania’s AMP Coordinator trained AMP users in Malawi • Tanzanian delegation participated in first Africa Region AMP Knowledge Sharing Workshop in Nairobi in Dec. 2008, with 6 other countries First Africa Region AMP Knowledge Sharing Workshop, Nairobi

20. AMP Tanzania: Key Facts • AMP is managed by the Ministry of Finance > External Finance Department > Aid Coordination Unit • Available at: http://amp.mof.go.tz(registered users only) • 30 government staff (including mainland and Zanzibar MOF staff, and several line ministry staff) trained as Advanced Users • 40 donor agency staff trained • Zanzibar has its own workspace and can create its own reports • Contains about 550 activities, representing approx. US$12 billion in donor commitments and US$7 billion in disbursements • Funding provided by UNDP and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

21. AMP Baseline Survey • Baseline survey of 19 government users* revealed perceived weakness in data management, yet high importance of this information: • About 60% said that aid information is used “very often” for planning and decision making in their department • More than 90% report that ODA data analysis has influenced national planning * Survey conducted in Feb. 2008. Follow up survey to be fielded this year.

22. Donor Coordination • In October, about 40 DPs representing 28 agencies received AMP training • DPs are now able to access AMP and make changes to their data • With government and UNDP, the DG helped draft AMP updating guidelines for donors • In January, government sent a letter to DPs with the AMP reporting schedule and committed to officially launch the system in March • A Development Gateway mission is currently in Dar es Salaam to assist government and donors in jointly verifying the data and producing reports • The European Commission agreed to rely on AMP Tanzania to produce the EC Blue Book Commissioner of the External Finance Department, Ministry of Finance – Tanzania, explains the plan for AMP data entry to his staff

23. Results Dashboard • Tanzania is the pilot country for a new dashboard to assist policymakers in Managing for Results • Combines financial inputs and outputs, and development outcomes, in a single interactive Results Dashboard View regional differences on development statistics from DevInfo ODA snapshot by sector and donor from the AMP database Mouseover to see ODA information by region

24. Results Dashboard (cont.) OECD Country at a Glance data MDG progress Tables with national budget and ODA by sector are also included Paris Declaration indicator scores at the national and donor levels