THIRD HIGH LEVEL FORUM ON AID EFFECTIVENESS
THE President; Mr J.A.Kufuor, has called on the donor community to design their aid packages to build the capacity of recipient, countries 80 that they can eventually wean themselves off the aid dependency.

Addressing ministerial session hours before the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness ended in Accra yesterday, President Kufuor said aid packages should be used to improve the human resource development and infrastructure of recipient countries to enable them to develop the economic muscle to become worthy investment partners in the international arena.

"The self-confidence and can-do spirit that are unleashed from such development are what the Aid Effectiveness must be about. Aid is to help recipient nations build capacity not only to overcome poverty but also to develop the economic muscle to become worthy investment partners internationally,” he stated.

President Kufour therefore, asked the forum to take bold and ambitious resolutions to minimise existing impediments to aid effectiveness in, recipient countries to make way for sustained growth and development.

The ministerial session was attended by delegates and dignitaries, including President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, the World Bank President, Mr Robert Zoellick, and former President of Ireland. Mrs Mary Robinson.

President Kufour said many recipient Countries had established various frameworks for financial monitoring and accountability and procurement process and asked development partners to demonstrate their commitment by matching such efforts with increased support and goodwill.

Such support, he said, should manifest itself in the timely release of resources for critical programmes in the shared plans, since delays in the implementation of programmes had led to frustrations and tended to cause political disenchantment, which has rendered some governments in democratic countries vulnerable.

"Harmonisation of development assistance in alignment with approved country development programmes is one way of improving releases from donors,” he stated.

Citing Ghana as one of the examples where development assistance had been used to stabilise the national economy, President Kufuor said Ghana was at the moment closer than most developing countries to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Already, the minimum daily wage has gone past the target $l. Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) is on course.

In addition, a programme had, been launched to provide free maternal health care for pregnant women under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), he said.



In view of the positive development in Ghana, the President said, Ghana has graduated from Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) status to International Development assistance (IDA) status in the World Bank’s ranking system.

The ODA is a category of aid from members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisatio.n for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and IDA is a category of aid given to poor countries with long-term interest-free loans.

President Kufour said the positive economic development had enabled Ghana to issue bonds on the international market, a measure that was designed to eventually wean the country off the perennial and structural dependence on aid.

The Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr Angel Gurria, said the delegates would adopt the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), which would eventually lead donor-dependent countries to cease dependence on aid and use their own resources for development,

He said the agenda had a maxim that called on donor communities to deliver what they promised, while enjoining the recipient countries to publish what they spent.

He called on delegates not to waste the opportunity provided by the forum to make aid work better for the poor. "We cannot afford to fail," he stated.

The Finance Advisor of Bangladesh, Mr Mirza Azizul Islam, called on the stakeholders of the forum to ensure that the agenda and consensus that would be reached at the meeting were implemented.

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Credit: Daily Graphic