How to make aid allocation and conditionalities consistent with the alignment and ownership principles? Aid alignment on the priorities, systems and procedures of the recipient countries is, with ownership, the principles of the Paris Declaration that has been the most quoted within the development international community. However, the recent evaluation of the Paris Declaration prepared on the request of OECD, suggests that alignment is one field where the progress has been the slowest, although starting from a low level.
The aim of the event was to examine which reforms could be brought to the aid modalities with the view to really promote alignment. More precisely, it gave the opportunity to examine how the allocation of aid between countries and its disbursement conditions can be more consistent with alignment and ownership, in the spirit of the Accra Declaration. Indeed in both cases relying mainly on an external assessment of economic policy may be not consistent with the alignment principle.
The panel examined how to make aid allocation formulas and aid disbursement conditions better tailored to the country features. It notably addressed the conditionality of budget support with the view to move from a conditionality based on policy measures to an outcome-based conditionality, consistently with the alignment principle. Why has this move been so slow? Which lessons can be drawn from the related experiments, in particular that of the European Commission? How can it be implemented in cases of state fragility or economic vulnerability?
Report of the event : Busan HLF4 - Final declaration :
