The Better Aid Blog

Better Aid created a Human Pyramid on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 near the High Level Forum in Accra, Ghana to demonstrate civil society’s opinion about the current architecture of aid.  The pyramid was photographed in hopes that the images and their captions could send a powerful message out about the state of aid today.

Click Here to see the photographs.

While it is said that a picture is worth one thousand words, they do not always have the desired effect on their audience.  Thomas Kerscher’s images that were released this past July (Fit for a Cartoon: Aid Effectiveness in Pictures) seemed to confuse rather than enlighten their audience about aid.

However, with such detailed captions, it is difficult to imagine any viewer of these pyramid pictures not understanding the point or relevance of the images.

Italian aid will be increasingly under the spotlight over the next year, as Italy prepares to host next years G8. At least that is what Action Aid Italy seem determined to ensure. Their campaign is underway with two new useful publications unpacking Italian aid policies and practice. Read the rest of this entry »

Ministers got to Accra on Wednesday evening determined to have their say in the final agreement. They re-opened what was - upon their arrival - an almost closed agreement and spent all day yesterday locked in negotiating rooms to try to improve some of the agreements. It was not an easy job, as the compromised version of the AAA had already been substantially watered down. The final version has not radically changed either. However, to the credit of a number of stubborn European Ministers decided to make things better - and at the same time gain some political credit and visibility - the final AAA is better than it could have been. Read the rest of this entry »

Accra has got the attention of the media. Today’s Financial Times drew attention to the role of the USA and Japan in blocking progress in the negotiations. (Former senior UK aid official) Adrian Wood, also in the FT, focused on aid dependence; proposing that donors should not give aid amounting to more than 50% of a country’s domestic tax revenue.

Meanwhile, the Guardian focused on transparency, and in particular the UK-led International Aid Transparency Initiative which was launched in Accra today.

Let’s hope that this media interest in issues of aid effectiveness continues after Accra…

Ministers arrived yesterday night in Accra up and ready to deal with the hot issues at the Accra Agenda for Action that negotiators hadn’t managed to agree upon. To their surprise they found out that… they did not have much to negotiate. Not happy about having flown for hours in vain, some of the Ministers want to reopen negotiations to improve the AAA. Whether they’re going to manage to get stronger language in it, it’s yet to be seen. Read the rest of this entry »

The “final final” draft of the AAA being circulated today includes an increase of almost 50% in the world poverty estimates, from one billion in yesterday’s draft to 1.4 billion people in today’s document. Read the rest of this entry »

Extremely active and vocal at yesterday’s roundtables, civil society present in Accra are performing at their best. They are insistently trying to get their voices heard - even if they are not always carefully listened to. Civil society’s active participation in Accra is a great of example of how citizens, social movements and NGOs are a great piece in the democratic puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »

Probably tonight is going to be a long night for the negotiators and Ministers present in Accra. And probably one with lots of passion - though not necessarily the sort of passion that one may dream of for a long night. Tomorrow the Ministerial meeting needs to come up with a final agreement and, as things stand now, discussions don’t seem to be quite close to it. Read the rest of this entry »

Much to the chagrin of particularly the US (and Japan?) it seems like food aid might be back on table in the Accra negotiations.  The World Bank released a press release today calling for action on food (so one issue they are not capitulating to the US on) and France are determined it remains on the agenda for discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

Negotiations have been going on all day in Accra at the High Level Forum on aid effectiveness but the stories seeping out are not encouraging. Japan and the US  - the latter generally supported by the World Bank - seem to be in particular blocking progress.  With the prospect of an Accra agenda for Inaction being announced on Thursday which ignores the demands of civil society and developing countries, it is hard not to ask how much this event is costing…. Read the rest of this entry »