Accra Aid Forum: People’s voices missing

by Viriato Chevane, Advocacy Coordinator in Mozambique, Oxfam GB
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Donors and aid recipient’s countries are not the only group interested in development aid. Again and again, civil society organizations from all over the world have been demanding a right to a say in the aid industry.

“Governments from developing countries are shamefully more accountable to donors than to citizens that have queued in poll stations to cast their votes to elect their leaders” – described some of the groups I met with during the civil society for better aid event in Accra.

In Mozambique the coordination of management of aid is done within the spirit of the Paris Declaration, and follows a model of transparency and mutual accountability.

This model is consolidated with the establishment of a memorandum of understanding between donors (the program aid partners) and government and every year the memorandum commitments are translated into concrete triggers associated to specific proposed indicators.

The role of civil society is not clearly defined in this government and donor’s partnership. The lack of internal laws that create space for civil society involvement in different stages of planning, including the budgeting cycle is a concern – describes the Mozambican civil society document for the Accra forum.

This lack of involvement of beneficiaries leads to problems in the definitions of priorities, countries are not growing, exit strategies are not envisaged and this perpetuates dependency. Is this the case to say donors are perpetuating sustainable developing countries?

The group 'Better Aid' puts on a stunt to show how Aid hierarchy ties developing countries in knots - threatening progress towards effective aid and development. Oxfam is working with them to urge governments to make aid work better for people living in poverty. Credit: Flint Duxfield

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