The African Road to Development Effectiveness

For over a year now, African Governments have contributed to shaping the agenda of the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to be held in Busan, South Korea, in 2011. Government and Civil Society representatives have participated in consultative meetings and responded to various surveys, leading to Busan. But what are our suggestions to improve development effectiveness and how do we move into that direction? I had the chance to represent the AfCoP in several of those key meetings and would like to report back to AfCoP members on the outcomes of two of them:

• The Second Regional Meeting on Aid Effectiveness, South-South Cooperation and Capacity Development, held on November 4-5, 2010, in Tunis, Tunisia;
• The OECD-DAC supported Global Partnership on Managing for Development Results (MfDR), held on March 7-8, 2011, in Paris, France.

The Tunis Consensus

In November this year, I participated along with ten AfCoP members in the AfDB-NEPAD consultative meeting on Aid Effectiveness. As AfCoP Co-Chair Dev Ruhee already provided an account of this meeting here, I will only provide my thoughts on its just released report, The Tunis Consensus available here. This report highlights the six following strong elements to target effective development in Africa:

• Building capable states;
• Developing democratic accountability
• Promoting South-South cooperation
• Thinking and acting regionally
• Embracing new development partners
• Outgrowing aid dependence

Managing for development results principles are embedded in the six elements that are highlighted above. Issues that relate to Results-Based Budgeting (the current discussion on the AfCoP forum) as a tool for Managing for Development Results indicate the need for African Countries to put in place systems that will ensure the achievement of goals and objectives of African Nations. If countries embrace Results-Based Budgeting systems, this will assist to build capable states that are able to meet the accountability needs and to overcome the problems of African citizens. One way for this to happen is to learn from other developing countries that have recently overcome the same challenges. Countries like Malaysia come in as an example. This indeed will be South-South Cooperation at play. Africa does not have the time and luxury of reinventing the wheel whilst its citizens continue to suffer. Result-Based Budgeting is one way of building states that will be capable of managing the plentiful resources in Africa for the benefit of its people. Africa needs to grow out of the aid dependency syndrome.

CoP's Contributions to Busan

At the recent meeting of the Global Partnership on Managing for Development Results, I met with representatives from the Latin American and Asian-Pacific Communities of Practice (CoP) on MfDR. Beyond sharing news on the progress made in each CoP, we discussed how CoPs should be best involved in the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. We all agreed to showcase the contribution of CoPs in improving MfDR systems at the country level; MfDR being one of the five Aid Effectiveness pillars as mentioned in the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action. Case studies from the three regional CoPs will be identified and a concept note which will include general guidelines on Managing for Development Results principles and procedures is being prepared, paving the way for better MfDR at the country level.

Solomon Mhlanga, Zimbabwe

Head of the Zimbabwe CoP on MfDR

Principal Director of the Modernisation Department

Office of the President and Cabinet