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Contributions from
the Column
Studies and reports
Donor harmonisation is still in the early stages
Somalia between hope and scepticism
Private sector as engine for development
Debating development and the private sector
11/2004 |
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[ Mozambique ]
Donor harmonisation is still in the early stages
Roughly one third of the development assistance Mozambique receives is general budget support or aid for sector programmes. The government wants to increase this share to two thirds. The 15 most important donors have made a commitment to cooperate more closely in the future, to use Mozambican capacities and to take the local budget cycle into account. Harmonisation and alignment should make aid more effective. To achieve this goal, however, much must yet happen. This is the conclusion policy advisers Richard Gerster and Alan Harding present in a report prepared on behalf of donors involved (including Denmark, Germany, the European Commission, France, the Netherlands, Britain, Sweden and the World Bank).
In April, the donors and the Republic of Mozambique signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The donors made a commitment to harmonise their support and to align to Mozambican procedures. Gerster and Harding believe that Mozambique is the ideal environment to test the approach. It is one of the most aid-dependent countries in Africa, receiving $ 700 million annually. Accordingly, the potential returns from improving aid effectiveness are high. Furthermore, the donors and the Government of Mozambique have a very good working relationship. The Memorandum of Understanding has an initial term of five years and obliges the donors to report on their harmonisation efforts annually. Gerster and Harding’s study assesses the performance in 2003, which will be used as a baseline for future assessments.
The authors are of the opinion that the division of responsibilities between the donors must improve. So far, thirteen countries are involved in the health sector, eleven in education and ten in agriculture and rural development – leaving “substantial room for future concentration and delegation to improve aid effectiveness”, Gerster and Harding state. They also report difficulties in aligning aid to the Mozambican budget cycle last year. Donors only honoured their commitments late and left the country in financial difficulties. Gerster and Harding recommend that the donors make commitments for a minimum of three years and disburse the promised funds in the first half of each year in order to give Mozambique time to plan the budget.
With regard to co-ordinating efforts, the authors have the impression that donors show no enthusiasm “to work on reducing the number of bilateral barriers preventing full harmonisation”. Some countries are evidently of the view that simply belonging to the donor group is a sufficient demonstration of their commitment to harmonisation. But there is need for more cooperation. This is particularly true of the missions sent to Mozambique. In 2003, the government received 134 such missions – more than two each week. Of these, only 23 (or 17%) were joint missions from at least two donors.
Harmonisation and alignment should not only increase aid effectiveness, but also strengthen ownership. Exactly whose ownership remains a moot question. According to Gerster and Harding, local civil society organisations fear that they will lose ground through the conversion to programme aid, because the government will feel particularly accountable to donors – and even more so than previously. This also applies to the parliament: Gerster and Harding report that both the donors and the government are concerned that strengthening parliamentary control could increase the domestic influence and prevent an effective allocation of funds. For understandable reasons, Gerster and Harding write, donors have in the past mainly strengthened executive capacities, since effective use of funds ultimately depends on the administration. However, in the future, they should focus on “the strengthening of all of the institutions required for effective budgetary management in a parliamentary democracy”. (ell)
Website
http://www.gersterconsulting.ch/docs/Baseline_report_Pappa_04.pdf
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