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Developing Countries Demand NGO Accountability
Category: Development
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
This week, the governments of developing countries have had the opportunity to make a fairly simple request to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multilateral donors: that they be included in strategies aimed at developing their countries.
On September 2, ministers from over 100 countries, heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor organizations, and civil society organizations from around the world gathered in Accra, Ghana, for the OECD’s Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. The purpose of the two-day meeting is to adopt the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), an eight-page document that offers recommendations for improving aid effectiveness.
The document recommends that the myriad actors engaged in development work collaborate more effectively to maximize the impact of development projects. “In recent years, more development actors – middle-income countries, global funds, the private sector, civil society organizations – are increasing their contributions and are bringing valuable experience to the table. Together, all development actors [should] work in more inclusive partnerships so that all our efforts have greater impact on reducing poverty.”
In addition to non-state actors, AAA also stipulates that governments of developing countries “take stronger leadership of their own development policies.” This provision will likely be welcomed by such governments, who have long been estranged from development policy formulation by NGOs and multilateral donors.
According to a recent Foreign Policy article, “Between 1980 and 2003, the amount of aid from OECD countries channeled through NGOs grew from $47 million to more than $4 billion. When aid reaches developing countries, it increasingly bypasses the host governments altogether.” This has allowed foreign NGOs to assume the roles typically filled by national governments.
In response, AAA seeks to encourage partnerships between non-state development practitioners and governments of developing nations. This builds on the work of the 2005 Paris Declaration, which outlines ways to improve cooperation between donors and recipients and establish benchmarks for measuring the impact of development programs. While AAA will likely receive the official blessing of NGOs, it will meet tacit resistance as it suggests that foreign assistance funds be diverted away from NGOs and allocated directly toward developing country capacity building. According to Michael Cohen and Parag Khanna of the New America Foundation, “Humanitarian groups need dysfunction to maintain their relevance. Indeed, their institutional survival depends on it.”
While NGOs will undoubtedly remain instrumental bodies for meaningful reform in the developing world, increased pressure from the governments of developing countries to reassert control over national development agendas will at a minimum encourage greater NGO accountability and effectiveness.
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