Africa Countries Encouraged to Create and Manage Development Projects | Voice of America - English
The UN Millennium Development Goals aim to cut poverty in half by 2015.   Donor countries have agreed to increase development assistance in support of that effort.  As much as120 billion dollars in aid is now given out annually in the form of assistance to developing countries. The role of recipient countries is to ensure that funds are used efficiently to help the poor.
?This means governments have to determine what developmentpolicies they want to adopt and then everything else is built aroundthose policies and programs.? Chinje said. Donors support theseinitiatives by adhering to the objectives of recipient countries. Theyalso integrate aid into local structures like the country?s planningand budgeting systems, This is a process known as donor alignment.?Alignment helps to streamline aid disbursement. It improves on thequality of delivery,? Chinje said. Donors and beneficiary countriesalso come together to ensure maximum benefits and mutualaccountability. This cooperation distinguishes the Paris Declarationfrom other previous approaches to aid disbursement. In the past,recipient countries were often expected to use development funds to buygoods and services from donor countries, even at higher prices. TheOrganization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) estimatesthat this form of aid raises the costs of goods and services by between15 and 30%, and for food aid by 35%. Donor countries also decided onthe kind of projects to invest in. After the completion of suchprojects, however, donors withdrew without training local people tocontinue the projects, which then failed. The Paris Declaration changedall that. Chinje said there have been significant improvements in aiddisbursement since the declaration came into being. He said, ?Althoughthere is much work to be done, there is a determined effort to aligneffort by recipient countries.?