Monitoring donor performance

In current debates, poor quality aid has often been attributed to the lack of ‘monitorable’ targets and the ways in which the different participants can hold each other to account on the effective delivery of resources.

However, the review of Poverty Reduction Strategies by the World Bank showed that accountability is often tilted far more towards the relationship between donors and recipient governments, than between recipient governments and their own citizens and civil society. This has led to an international recognition of accountability as a key issue to address in improving the quality and effectiveness of aid.

The 2005 OECD Paris Declaration for Aid Effectiveness has come up with 12 indicators and targets that can now lead to effective monitoring of donor and recipient country performance in the way aid is allocated and delivered. By 2010, which is the target for aid commitments made in 2005, these indicators will have been monitored twice, in 2006 and 2008.

Although this is a significant improvement from the past, these indicators are more reflective of how donors, rather than recipient countries, want aid to improve; Civil society organisations are only minimally engaged with the processes at the moment.

World Vision has led the NGO's from the UK in lobbying donors on implementing and making the Paris Declaration more effective.