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Article posted September 02, 2008 - 05:57 AM MANILA, Philippines - As a three-day high-level forum on aid starts in Ghana, various groups posed seven challenges to ministers and heads of financial institutions about the effectiveness of international aid interventions. The groups, in a statement, issued the challenges as officials from 100 countries prepared to attend the third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana Sept. 2 to 4.
"We join our voices with other movements and civil society organizations that have expressed issues and concerns regarding the process, agenda and outcome of this Forum," they said in a statement on the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) website. In addition to the recommendations endorsed in a “common civil society position paper," the groups present the following calls andchallenges: Justice and reparation as the starting point of aid. Aid-giving should not be falsely premised on charity but should begin with the acknowledgment of responsibility and with the intent of justice, reparations and restoration. Debt cancellation as a major requisite for "Aid Effectiveness," where aid in the form of loans cannot effectively address and indeed only worsen poverty, gender inequality and the crises of food, energy and climate. Illegitimate and odious debt must be addressed. Effective development where the eradication of poverty, the delivery of social services, the promotion of social equity, human rights, gender equality, sustainable jobs and livelihoods, food sovereignty, environmental security and climate justice must be at the center of the discourse. Democratic process demands that people's organizations, social movements, trade unions NGOs and other citizens' groups be recognized as independent development actors and be accorded a major role in processes concerning development policy and aid. Financing aimed at the climate crisis should be managed through new democratic and accountable institutions. Financing of environmentally destructive projects must stop. Aid must be free of donor-imposed conditionalities. Tied aid should be rejected.
"Aid-giving is not only exercised in the context of unequal power relations, it is being used as an instrument of power. And conditionalities are the most blatant expression of this fact," the groups said. They added aid should be premised on justice, the righting of historical wrongs, the acknowledgement of responsibility for impoverishment and inequality, and the obligation to pay reparations and restitution. Also, they said aid must puts people at the center - the billions of excluded, marginalized, silenced, and disempowered, the majority of whom are women; Aid that does not come with conditionalities, vested interests and deception. They added aid must uphold the sovereignty and rights of countries and peoples; and be managed democratically and in a transparent and accountable manner. "This is the only kind of aid that can be effective; this is the only kind of aid that is acceptable," they said. Among those who signed the statement were Jubilee South, Jubilee South Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, ODA Asia Forum, Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE), South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE), LDC Watch, International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) – Asia, Development Alternatives With Women For A New Era (DAWN) – Southeast Asia, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), South Asian Network for Social & Agricultural Development (SANSAD), Asia-Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty (APNFS), Focus on the Global South (Thailand, Philippines and India), Alternatives Asia, International South Group Network - Asia, NGO Forum on the ADB, GCAP SENCA, Africa Jubilee South, ActionAid International – Africa, AFRODAD Jubilee South Americas, International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) – Latin America, Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres de las Americas, European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD), International Forum on Globalization, CADTM International, Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) - International, and REMTE (Red Latinoamericana Mujeres Transformando La Economia). Philippine groups that signed the statement included Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), ODA Watch, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), Management and Organizational Development for Empowerment (MODE) Kalayaan!, Sanlakas, Solidarity of Filipino Workers (BMP), WomanHealth Philippines, Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), BISIG, Sustainability Watch (SusWatch) Network, Social Watch, GCAP, Integrated Rural Development Foundation of the Philippines, Inc., Philppine Network of Rural Development Institutes, Inc. (Philnet-RDI), Pambansang Kongreso ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK), and SOLJUSPAX (Sol Justitiae Et Pax/Sun of Justice and Peace). Source: GMANews.TV |
