Aid for Africa must lead to economic growth: As Implementation of Agenda for Action Begins

Participating countries and Civil Society Organizations at the Just ended 3rd Aid Effectiveness Summit held in Accra  agreed to work together to facilitate effective Aid delivery for developing countries to promote economic growth and the livelihood of  their  population towards self sufficiency.

Donor Agencies and countries promised to engage in open and inclusive Dialogue on development policies, having acknowledged the critical role of their parliaments in promoting transparency and ensuring country ownership of development processes.

To facilitate the implementation process, governments of developing countries were tasked to work more closely with their parliamentary bodies and local authorities in preparing, implementing and monitoring national development policies and plans.

Donor countries further promised to support efforts to increase the capacity of all development actors, central and local governments CSO,s, research institutions, media and the private sector to take an active role in dialogue on development policies.

As part of efforts to strengthen and use developing country systems  to the maximum extent Developing countries were to also ensure that their respective development policies and programmes were designed and implemented in ways that would be consistent with international commitments on gender equality, human right, disability and environmental sustainability.

Further, donors promised to immediately start working on and sharing transparent plans for undertaking their Paris commitments on using country systems in all forms of development assistance, provide staff guidance on how the systems could be used ;and ensure that internal incentives encourage their use..

Donors indicated that if they should choose to use another option and rely on aid delivery mechanisms outside the adopted country systems there would be a transparent explanation of the rational for the change aside reviewing their positions on regular intervals.

Ghana's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, at a press conference after the adoption of the agreement, said building a more effective and inclusive partnership could harness the energy skills and experience of all development actors' bilateral and multilateral donors, global funds CSO'S and the private sector as agreed on the agenda.

He urged the media and non governmental organizations to monitor aid delivery systems and report effectively on issues on aid to help bring transparency in the management of resources from Aid.

According to him, the agenda for Action aims at building a platform for developing countries to grow their economies to improve human resource development and infrastructure.

"Aid Alone cannot solve all our problems but when used effectively, it could bring the level of development to an appreciable standard. Ghana can boast of the School Feeding, Capitation Grant, programmes, construction of the Circle- Achimota, Tetteh Quashie- Madina dual carriage roads among others as some of the development strategies being implemented with aid", he indicated.

He said aid should empower people to have enough revenue to improve their livelihood.

The Director General Of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick said if Africans should use resources better it would facilitate the achievement of the set Goals under the Millennium Development Goals.

He said Europe would continue to provide 55% of aid to developing countries. He said the agenda was developed with non traditional donors such as China, India, and South Korea among others.