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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
WFP opposes strict WTO rules
G8 cancels debt and cuts aid
Climate protection after Kyoto
EU looks for its role in development policy
Africa suffers from lack of harmonisation
KfW Development Bank gains
Spam mails impede development
Aid does not reach the poor
Trade: Renminbi appreciation would have no effect
07/2005
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[ Africa ]
Getting serious
about harmonisation
2005 is the year in which important decisions for Africa are on the agenda. Of course, donor organisations are just as interested in their own affairs and want to ensure they remain in the development business with their own approaches and priorities. This applies to Germany too. According to participants at an Africa symposium held by the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn in June, the Federal Republic’s decision makers are not prepared for instruments such as programme financing or budget support, or for more division of labour. The craggy landscape of the German implementing organisations was blamed to add to the problem.
Africa needs more money. But that alone doesn’t solve any of the continent’s problems. To the contrary, as the old saying goes: “In Africa, too much aid is worse than too little.” Nontheless, Jeffrey Sachs, the prominent economist, and the British government are proposing a “big push” in the sense of providing considerably more aid for Africa as fast as possible. Klemens van de Sand, representative of the German Development Ministry (BMZ) for the Millennium Development Goals, argues that this approach would be negligent if the societal framework as well as the monitoring of the use of funds were not improved at the same time.
The type of aid Africa receives also has to be reconsidered – loans or grants. Otherwise, according to Michael Hofmann, Director General at the BMZ, “the G8 summit in 2013 will be discussing HIPC 7”. The World Bank has worked out a new line of action, the Debt Sustainability Framework, which is designed to prevent a country from accumulating more debt than it is able to pay back. Indicators measure how much aid a country receives and how high the proportion of grants should be. “Of course this only works if all donors take part,” says Jürgen Zattler, head of the World Bank division of BMZ. On the other hand, if the only way debt-bearing capacity can be achieved in a country is to renounce new loans, the World Bank’s own approach requires it to withdraw from the role of lender and to only be involved conceptionally. However, development practitioners confirm that the Bank has not shown any great willingness to reduce itself to such a role yet.
There is also a lack of coordination when it comes to budget support. According to Petra Schmidt from DIE, the EU Commission uses this instrument not at all in such an irresponsible manner as is often claimed. Indeed, the funding is tied to policy results in the recipient countries (see her essay on p. 276). The World Bank and the bilateral donors who give budget support do so too. The problem, however, is that they each base their decisions on completely different criteria. In this sense, a truly “big push” for aid to Africa would result from the donors declaring 2005 to be the year in which they get serious about harmonisation and alignment. (ell)
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