HON BAAH-WIREDU LAUNCHES THE ACCRA HIGH LEVEL FORUM ON AID EFFECTIVENESS.
The Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, also known as the Accra High Level Forum to be held in Ghana from September 2-4, 2008 was officially launched at a press conference today.
Launching the forum, the Hon. Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu stated that by hosting the event, Ghana being the first developing country to host this forum presents itself to the international community not only as a dynamic nation that successfully pursues socio-economic reforms in a complex and globalised environment, but also as a nation that has effectively managed donor assistance to the ultimate benefit of her citizens.
“It also poses a challenge to us in being an effective host of the event and a valued facilitator of an on-going debate on aid effectiveness and its role in bringing about development effectiveness on the African and other developing country continents” he added.
Hon. Minster said the objectives of the forum among other things were to take stock of and review progress made in implementing the Paris Declaration; identify challenges and bottlenecks, and scale up implementation of the aid effectiveness agenda for 2011 and beyond, as well as to; sustain and enhance political support for doing so, particularly at the country level.
He expressed the hope that the conference will push the issue of aid effectiveness to a level where partner countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies and the donors in turn base their overall support on partner countries’ national development strategies, institutions, and procedures.
On the use of aid, the Minister said disbursement is based on the three pillars of the GPRS; these are good governance, human resource development and the private sector. He, however, added that education and health sectors take a bigger chunk of aid inflows.
He added that Ghana had received about $300 million through the Multi Donor Budget Support.
The conference which is expected to be attended by about 1000 delegates will bring together ministers, heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor organizations and civil society groups from over 100 countries.
The Third High Level Forum will be made up of; a marketplace of ideas that will promote information sharing, cross-fertilization of knowledge and approaches and learning among the participants by showcasing good and innovative practices and lessons in aid effectiveness, roundtable meetings and a ministerial level meeting.
The First High Level Forum was held in Rome in 2003. Donors and partner countries and leaders of the major multilateral development banks met and committed to take action to improve the management and effectiveness of aid and to take stock of concrete progress.
In 2005, the international community came together again at the Paris High-Level Forum, where over 100 signatories from partner governments, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, regional development banks, and international agencies; endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In signing the Paris Declaration, they committed to specific actions that would promote the effective use of aid funds. The Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra will build on the legacy of the previous meetings.
In attendance at the launch were the Deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation; Hon. Frank Agyekum, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Nana Juaben-Boaten Siriboe, officials from Ministry of Finance and the press.
END
