THIRD HIGH LEVEL FORUM ON AID EFFECTIVES TO BE HELD IN ACCRA ON SEPTEMBER 2 – 4, 2008

This September Ministers from 100 countries and international organizations will gather at an international conference in Accra to discuss ways of making aid more effective.

Hosted by the Government of Ghana, the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, scheduled for September 2-4, will consider a variety of measures on how aid money is spent.

On the agenda are such issues as longer-term aid commitments by donors, reduction in the conditions attached to development assistance, and strengthening parliamentary scrutiny in developing countries. The establishment of joint reviews by donors and recipients to review the management of aid will also be discussed.

"Mutual accountability – when donors and partner countries are accountable to each other for better management of aid in order to promote development – is a key concept of the talks," says, Nana Juaben–Boaten Siriboe, Chief Director of Ministry of Finance, which is coordinating the conference. "The very fact that the meeting is being held in Ghana symbolizes the way in which industrialized and developing countries are working together in this effort. This is a partnership."

Another important issue for the 800-1,000 participants expected at the conference will be finding ways to ensure that donors outside the traditional aid-giving countries – such as philanthropic foundations – are brought in to improve aid that began at a meeting in Paris in 2005. Private philanthropy contributes $50-60 billion a year, on top of aid flows.

Attention will also be given to "fragile states", where aid may be crucial but where instability jeopardizes aid delivery and management. Measures agreed in the Accra Action Agenda will be reviewed at another conference in December 2010.

The meeting comes three years after the "Paris Declaration" agreed on 56 actions to increase the efficiency of development assistance and eight weeks before a major international gathering on helping the world's poor.

Issued by the Public Relations Unit Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning