Ghana will be the host of the third High level Forum on aid effectiveness (HLF3). Slated for September 2 to 4 2008, the HLF3 will review and assess progress in the implementation of the Paris Declaration (PD) on aid effectiveness and to agree on a new agenda for action.
The PD was endorsed in March 2005 at the second high level forum in Paris with the objective of enhancing better delivery and management of aid in order to improve aid effectiveness.
Referred to as the new regime of international aid and defined as a partnership between members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), donors and recipient developing countries, the PD lays out global commitment organized around five key principles of effective aid.
They are namely ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results and mutual accountability.
Ghana is considered a highly aid-dependant country with the most significant being the Multi Donor Budget Support (MDBS) system.
Speaking at a press briefing to launch the HLF 3 in Accra, Minister of Finance Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said that Ghana as a host country is privileged to send its own strong signals about the importance of aid effectiveness.
"We hope the conference will push the issue of aid effectiveness to a level where we the partner countries exercise effective leadership over our development policies and strategies and the donors in turn base their overall support in partner countries,national development strategies, institutions and procedures."
He stated a chunk of the aid Ghana receives has gone into education citing the upgrading of thirty-nine senior high schools. He recalled that government and its development partners recognizing the need for aid effectiveness signed a memorandum to begin the implementation of the MDBS framework.
Now in its fifth year of implementation, he described the process as mutually fulfilling for government and development.
"We have largely overcome the challenges of frequent individual missions and bilateral consultations, huge negotiations cost of aid, inconsistency of projects with government priorities and operation of parallel systems and the unpredictability of funds."
According to Mr. Baah-Wiredu, the HLF 3 like other international events hosted by Ghana this year is an important signifier that the world has recognized the countryâ's political and economic stability.
He said as part of preparations towards ensuring a successful conference, government has set up a national planning committee, made up of representatives from various MDAs and civil society groups.
At the international level, there is a steering committee which has representatives from Ghana and three other developing countries, some developed countries, international financial institutions, the UN and OECD.
Ministers from over 100 countries, heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor organizations, and civil society organizations from around the world will gather in Accra for the HLF3.
The Accra HLF will comprise of three complementary segments ; market place of knowledge and ideas, roundtable meetings to provide participants the opportunity for in-depth technical discussions to facilitate and support work on aid effectiveness and a ministerial level meeting that will culminate in the endorsement of a ministerial statement to be known as the Accra Agenda for Action.
In a Ghana, a series of activities to engage the citizenry, CSOs and politicians on how aid can best support the countryâ's development agenda are underway.
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