AWEPA Aid Effectiveness Programme

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Caption: Hon. Boni Tessi, Member of the National Assembly of Benin, collects feedback from villagers on aid-funded water projects in the village of Assagbiné-Baka, municipality of Parakou, Benin.

Donors
Austrian Development Agency (ADA)
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via the Amsterdam Institute of International Development (AIID) of the University of Amsterdam.

Political Coordinator
Hon. Lord Chidgey (United Kingdom)
Hon. Petra Bayr (Austria)

Background

AWEPA’s Aid Effectiveness programme consists of three projects, The Role of Parliament in the New Aid Architecture funded by ADA: A Focus on the SADC Region; Engaging Parliamentarians in the Changing Aid Architecture, funded by Sida; and the Parliamentary ODA Oversight Project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through AIID.

The Aid Effectiveness programme serves to engage African and European parliamentarians in the aid reform process through trainings, public hearings, joint monitoring exercises, workshops and seminars which cut across the national, regional and continental levels. The transfer of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from donor country taxpayers to recipient country citizens requires parliamentary oversight on both ends of the aid equation. Despite this fact, MPs from the North and the South have been only marginally engaged in the process of aid reform which aims to assure that donor funds are used effectively for those in need. In Africa, MPs are faced with a variety of capacity constraints for meaningful oversight of ODA and national revenues. In an evolving aid landscape with insufficient access to information and limited analytical capacity, parliamentarians in Africa require substantial support if they are to perform their oversight and representational functions effectively.

Objectives

To increase government accountability to its parliament and citizens on the use of ODA
To strengthen democratic ownership and parliamentary oversight of ODA
To support cooperation between parliaments, civil society, the executive and donors towards more effective use of ODA

Impacts

International:

Increased recognition of the role of parliament in the OECD WP-EFF, UN, and African Platform for Development Effectiveness;
AWEPA was requested to organise the Parliamentary Forum in the HLF-4 jointly with the IPU and the Korean National Assembly;
Funded participation for 10 MPs to the HLF-4 was secured from the organisers
Increased number of MPs in the HLF-4 (over five times the number present at the HLF-3)
Parliamentary representation was offered a seat in the Post-Busan Interim Group (PBIG)
Legislative Principles on Development Effectiveness were debated, revised and endorsed by MPs across the globe in partnership with the IPU, PNoWB and Joint ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
Cooperation on the “Budapest Declaration” of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembl
Evidence of Strengthened Parliamentary Oversight collected and distributed

Regional:

Within the SADC-Parliamentary Forum, awareness has been raised among members on the aid reform process and the role of parliaments and the SADC Regional Plan of Action on Aid Effectiveness was distributed and discussed.

National:

Parliamentary Staff and the Planning and Budget Committee have increased their capacity to analyse and provide inputs to the budget in cooperation with the Mozambique’s Supreme Auditing Institutions.
In Mozambique, the Planning and Budget Committee established a partnership towards increased dialogue with the Budget Monitoring Forum and the Foundation for Community Development (FCD).
Members of the Pan-African Parliament, the SADC-PF, EALA, the CEMAC-Parliament, and the Parliaments of Ghana, Uganda, the DRC, and Namibia have received information on the Aid Reform agenda; the role of parliament in aid oversight; ODA entering their countries; the role of aid in development, and the African position; citizen opinion on aid projects; and sustained contact has been made with local and international NGOs who can assist parliaments and their staff with the provision of further information;
MPs in Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique and Benin are better able to engage with their constituents on development projects and ask relevant questions to local authorities, donors and NGOs on their behalf;
MPs in Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique and Benin are better able to coordinate and communicate on issues of aid and development effectiveness with relevant local and international institutions such as Government Ministries, NGOs, European MPs, and academics;
The Parliament of the DRC is attempting to get a private member’s bill on the agenda which will increase parliamentary prerogatives in aid management;
In Namibia, good cooperation with the National Planning Commission has been established and the issue of ODA oversight was included in the debate on the 2011 Appropriation Act;
In Swaziland, the Parliament made a motion requiring government to report aid flows to parliament.

Example Activity

Public Hearings Ghana (25 February- 1 March 2011)

The Parliament of Ghana conducted a series of three public hearings in the Yilo Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo and Ningro-Prampram Constituencies. The hearings were aimed at gathering public opinion on targeted development projects in the region and were conducted according to the project evaluation methodology recently designed by the Parliament of Ghana.

The hearings fostered detailed dialogue between MPs and constituents on salient development issues in their communities as well as amongst local Chiefs, District Chief Executives (DCEs) and other local leaders. In cooperation with the project representatives, parliamentary staff derived a set of indicators by which citizens could rate projects in close consultation with MPs. Those projects reviewed over the course of the three hearings include that on nursing facilities in the Kilo Krobo Constituency, the “Epicenter” project in the Manya Krobo Constituency, and a water treatment and disbursement project amongst communities located in the arid Accra plains. The data collected can be immediately used by MPs to hold donors, project implementers, DCEs and others to account to the needs voiced by their constituents.

Donors

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