Country

Engagement
for
Aid and Development
Effectiveness

NEWSLETTER
Issue 4  May 2011

Inside Country Outreach Brings

Updates from BetterAid
Upcoming Activities
MEJN Stresses Importance
of CSO participation for
Aid Effectiveness
‘Key Asks’ to CSOs
2
The country outreach is calling upon civil society organizations
4 (CSOs) to embark on a global process to build a strong voice of
peoples’ demands towards the Fourth High Level Forum (HLF4) in
Busan. With respect to this, IBON/RoA’s country outreach team
7 (CORT) is now actively engaging CSOs on BetterAid’s document:
‘CSOs on the Road to Busan: Key Messages and Proposals’, better
known as the ‘CSO Key Asks’. The document, authored in
cooperation with the Open Forum, aims to unite CSOs demands
towards Busan and enable a strong lobbying position on the HLF4

IBON
outcome compact. CORT began in April to actively support the
endorsement of the ‘CSO Key Asks’ and distribute, discuss and
International
publicize the document at regional and national CSO consultations
and workshops.
In cooperation
with:
Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 4  May 2011

It is not surprising that following this engagement CSOs responded

to the efforts of this unifying text. During a regional CSO and Multi-
stakeholder Consultation on Agriculture and Rural Development Updates from
held last paril 7-9, African CSOs signed collectively on to the
document. Nigerian CSOs, at a national workshop on Aid BetterAid
Effectiveness, last April 19-20, too endorsed the ‘CSO Key Asks’ as
their main positions towards the HLF 4, strengthening the call for
CSO Applications for HLF4:
real results and a committed outcome compact at Busan (see page
BetterAid activities have been gaining
2). At a national workshop in the Philippines, CSOs discussed and
pace as the Fourth High Level Forum
commented extensively on the document itself improving its content
on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan
and strengthening its validity (see page 5).
at the end of this year 2011 draws
The ‘CSO Key Asks’ is a draft paper that targets to stimulate nearer. BetterAid is coordinating the
discussion amongst CSOs whose active contribution through application process for CSOs wishing
comments will enable the document to reflect CSOs’ positions to attend the HLF4, and is already
worldwide. Through the ‘CSO Key Asks’ civil society is calling upon planning for the event, which will
all development actors to achieve a bold forward-looking outcome include a parallel CSO event.
at the Busan HLF 4. Substantial progress in four inter-dependent
‘Key Asks’ Ready to Sign:
areas of reform is essential for a meaningful and ambitious Busan
CSOs representing geographical and
Compact on Development
Effectiveness:
thematic sectors globally, met in
A) Fully evaluate and deepen the Paris and Accra Harnosand, Sweden, in March, to
commitments; decide on a joint civil society strategy
B) Strengthen development effectiveness through practices towards the HLF4. Attending
based on human rights standards; organizations included representatives
C) Support CSOs as independent development actors in their from both BetterAid and the Open
own right, and commit to an enabling environment for their Forum on CSO development
work in all countries; and effectiveness. The resulting document
D) Promote equitable and just development cooperation
‘CSOs on the Road to Busan: Key
Messages and Proposals’, will serve as
architecture.
a backbone for civil society policy
Apart from the comment process during consultations, CSOs are demands from stakeholders
also encouraged to provide inputs and sign-on to the document participating at the HLF4. Civil
either through its online-petition available from www.betteraid.org society organisations are encouraged
or directly via e-mail. For further inquiries, please write: Clare to sign on to the document at the
Birkett (mailto:cbirkett@eurodad.org) and/or copy Reileen Dulay BetterAid website.
(secretariat@betteraid.org).
Continue to next page

Africa:

Nigeria
NIGERIAN CSOs URGE GOVERNMENT AND DONORS TO
PROVIDE AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR COOPERATION
Abuja – CSOs in Nigeria called for the need to promote an enabling
environment to ensure the effective implementation of PD/AAA in
the country, specifically, CSOs demanded for the development of an

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Country Outreach Newsletter
BetterAid’s Global CSO
Consultations:
BetterAid has initiated several
thematic global civil society
consultations on development
effectiveness. In March, a consultation
on Labor and Development
Effectiveness was held in cooperation
with the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) in Paris. Two
more consultations on agriculture and
development effectiveness were held in
cooperation with the Peoples’ Coalition
on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) in Sri
Lanka last January and in Tanzania
last April. An upcoming consultation on
development effectiveness and gender
will be held in Brussels coming June.
Aside from these thematic
consultations, African CSOs held a
regional consultation in late February
to decide on key messages from African
CSOs towards the HLF.
BetterAid at International Events:
In May, BetterAid members are
attending and speaking at several
international events crucial to the aid
and development effectiveness agenda,
starting with the UN Development
Cooperation Forum symposium on May
5th -6th in Mali. Just before the event,
BetterAid submitted a response to the
UNDCF’s draft strategy for 2012.
BetterAid was also present at the
Fourth United Nations Conference on
the Least Developed Countries,
launched a statement, and organized a
side event with the title: ‘CSOs on the
Road to Busan: Peoples’ Perspective on
Development Effectiveness on May
10th.
For more information about the
BetterAid platform, visit:
www.betteraid.org
and follow BetterAid on twitter, at:
https://twitter.com/betteraid
Issue 4  May 2011
action plan to guide PD and AAA implementation as well as the
establishment of an effective mechanism for result-based monitoring
and evaluation of progress in relation to implementation. The CSO
call was made during the CSO Consultation held in Abuja last April
19-20, 2011. The CSO Consultation in Nigeria was held at an
opportune time when freshly elected political leaders are open to
partnerships with CSOs in monitoring the implementation of AAA,
ODA flows and utilization.
During the meeting, CSOs noted and discussed the gaps in
coordination, information dissemination and delivery and
monitoring of aid. These inadequacies, particularly on the
accessibility of information, hamper CSO engagement in the aid
reform discourse. The consultation concluded by endorsing the
BetterAid Key Asks document as Nigerian CSO’s position towards
Busan and the resolution to organize a CSO National Platform on
aid and development effectiveness as the official CSO body who
will engage with stakeholders on the aid and development
effectiveness issue.
The CSO and Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Aid Effectiveness
was organized by IBON/International and African Network for
Environment and Economic Justice. The Abuja Consultation was
attended by thirty-five participants fromGovernment, Donors, Civil
Society, academe and media. The consultation reviewed the
current state of implementing the Paris Declaration (PD) and Accra
Agenda for Action (AAA) in Nigeria and the importance of the High
Level Forum (HLF) IV in Busan, South Korea.
Zimbabwe
CSOs IN ZIMBABWE DEMAND INCLUSION IN AID
MECHANISMS
Harare – Civil society organisations (CSOs) are demanding a
meaningful role in structures and processes that co-ordinate aid in
Zimbabwe. This was the call among CSOs who participated in a
recent CSO Consultation on Aid and Development Effectiveness
held at Bronte Hotel in Harare last 23 February 2011. The meeting
was the start of the
country-level process in Zimbabwe following the
Southern Regional CSO Consultations and Multi-Stakeholder
Consultations back in 2009. The meeting ended with the agreement
to establish an aid platform for CSOs to represent them officially
within dialogue mechanisms.
Dakarayi Matanga, Executive Director of ZIMCODD, noted that
CSO active involvement in the AID Coordination Mechanism of the
country is essential since aid issues affect everyone. He also
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Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 4  May 2011

stressed the need of facilitating greater involvement of CSOs Upcoming Activity,

representing other sectors/districts and other aid actors such as Second Quarter 2011
academe and media.

Zimbabwe is not a signatory of the Paris Declaration but has taken Asia/Pacific
steps to operationalize the principles of PD and AAA in the
country. The meeting was organized by Zimbabwe Coalition on Regional
Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), Poverty Reduction Forum – Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Trust (PRFT) and Women's Action Group (WAG) and supported by CSO Workshop and Multi-
stakeholder Consultation
the IBON/RoA Country Outreach Program. Turkey, June 2011 (tentative)

– Pacific CSO Workshop on Aid and

Development Effectiveness
Asia – Pacific Nadj, Fiji, July 2011 (tentative)

Cambodia
Philippines – Multi-stakeholder Consultation on
PHILIPPINE CSOs’ NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON ODA, ‘Moving from Aid towards
Development Effectiveness’
AGRARIAN REFORM AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: ODA FOR
03 June 2011
FOREIGN DOMINANCE, COUNTER-INSURGENCY AND
CORRUPTION IN THE MIDST OF THE WORSENING POVERTY, China
HUNGER AND LANDLESSNESS – Research Meeting on the Future of
Chinese ODA
June 2011 (Tentative)

Egypt
– CSO Workshop and Multi-
stakeholder Consultation
June 2011 (tentative)

Lebanon
– CSO Workshop and Multi-
stakeholder Consultation
14-15 June 2011

Tajikistan
Quezon City – A National Consultation on ODA, Agrarian Reform – CSO Workshop and Multi-
stakeholder Consultation
and Food Sovereignty held at St. Theresa’s College on March 25,
21-22 July 2011
2011 was participated by over 60 representatives hailing from
diverse sectors including peasant leaders from nearly every region Tunisia
of the country. The consultation revealed that at present, aid in – CSO Workshop and Multi-
agriculture reinforces corruption in bureaucracy and has been used stakeholder Consultation
May 2011 (tentative)
to facilitate land-grabbing, intensified corporate agriculture and as a
consequence contributed to the militarization of the countryside.
Based on the experiences of peasants and other marginalized Latin America
sectors in the Philippines, the consultation concluded that to this
date, ODA supported programs in agriculture have failed and only Bolivia
contributed to the intensification of poverty, hunger and – National Consultation in Bolivia on
"Changes and Reform in
landlessness.
Cooperation and Development
Policies in Bolivia"
15-16 June 2011
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Country Outreach Newsletter
Country Outreach
Materials Now
Available in Three
Languages
The IBON/Reality of Aid Country
Outreach Team in its efforts to reach
the broadest possible number of
CSOs and mobilizing them to
participate around Aid and
Development Effectiveness issues
has undertaken the tasks of
translating materials relating to
Country Outreach work into French
and Spanish. Such efforts were made
to meet the growing demands of our
CSO partners and in order to
facilitate the understandings on
policies, strategies and the aid
agenda worldwide by braking down
language barriers. The CORT team is
proud to provide these new materials
to our partner organizations.
Among the translated materials
available for distribution are ‘Case
Stories of Civil Society Engagement
on Aid Effectiveness’; ‘IBON Primer
on ODA and Development
Effectiveness’; and the newly
introduced ‘IBON/RoA- CORT
brochure’. CORT’s bi-monthly
newsletter will from now on also be
available in both French and Spanish
to ensure better communication with
our partners around the globe.
Soft- copies are available upon
request; or from the newly updated
Country Outreach website.
http://www.realityofaid.org/country-
outreach/index
Issue 4  May 2011
The consultation was characterized by diverse views from different
actors. The contribution of Danilo Ramos, Secretary General of
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Farmers in the
Philippines) (KMP) and the Asian Peasant Coalition, discussed the
imperatives of Agrarian Reform and Food Sovereignty as a platform
for advocacy and campaign against poverty, hunger and
landlessness. Highlighting the struggle of KMP for a genuine land
reform in the Philippines, he called for the strengthening of a multi
sectoral support for the peasants on a national and international
level. Overall, participants agreed to engage on the issues of aid and
development and heighten the campaigns against land-grabbing and
corporate farming schemes that impact negatively on the poor. The
event was a collaborative effort of the Peoples’ Coalition for Food
Sovereignty PCFS), the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), the Reality of
Aid (RoA) and the KMP with the support of BetterAid.
AT BUSAN AND BEYOND: CLAIMING THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO
DEVELOPMENT
Makati City – Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from all over the
Philippines gathered on Friday, April 29 in a strategy meeting tagged
as “In Busan and beyond: Claiming the People’s Right to
Development” which aimed to identify key issues to be forwarded
in the 4th High Level Forum (HLF4) on Aid effectiveness in
November this year. Moreover, the meeting also merged aid
effectiveness and its parallel process CSO development effectiveness
in the country. This initiative which aims to further advance Filipino
people’s development issues in the global community is the first of
its kind in Asia-Pacific.
During the said meeting, AidWatch Philippines presented its
engagement on the aid effectiveness process since its establishment
in 2003 as a strong CSO network on aid and development issues
while the Council for People’s Development and Governance
(CPDG) discussed Philippine CSOs’ engagements in the
development effectiveness process.
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Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 4  May 2011

The afternoon session saw a presentation by the IBON/RoA’s

Country Outreach Team on the BetterAid ‘Key Asks’ (key demands
of CSOs united under the BetterAid platform) that was followed by a
lively discussion on the CSO agenda towards Busan. CSO
representatives pointed out several issues of the marginalized
sectors that need to be addressed in the Korea HLF4 through a
workshop guided by the BetterAid platform Key Asks document.
Willy Marbella of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP/Peasant
Movement of the Philippines) registered that the peasants, the
largest sector in the society must be included in the global
discussions of development by addressing the issue of Agrarian
Reform. On the other hand, Carlos Maningat of Ecumenical Institute
for Labor Education and Research pointed out that issue of higher
wages must be part of development agenda. After the workshop,
AidWatch Philippines announced its series of CSO gatherings
towards the HLF4 and its projects, which include an independent
Restructured
report on the Philippine government’s implementation of the 2005
Paris Declaration in the country.
CORT Website
Out Now

Indonesia

The Country Outreach has

reviewed and updated its
website space hosted by the
Reality of Aid network. The new
website offers CSOs the
opportunity to use this unique
space and contribute to country
specific information and
announcements. To view the
new site, please visit:
http://www.realityofaid.org/coun
try-outreach/index

ASIA REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON CSOs AID AND

For comments, suggestions on
DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS
how to improve the site further
Jakarta – The Open Forum, in cooperation with the Asia Pacific
or on how to contribute to
Research Network (APRN), organized a regional workshop on CSOs
country specific pages, please
aid and development effectiveness in Jakarta Indonesia, May 3-4.
contact:
CSOs aimed to gather momentum and intensify their advocacy
towards the HLF 4 in Busan Korea. In this capacity, the IBON/RoA
Country Outreach Team presented the BetterAid’s process that
offers opportunities for CSO involvement on the road to Busan, by
Nicolas Gloeckl
commenting and endorsing BetterAid’s ‘CSO Key Asks’ document Communications Officer
(the document outlines and unifies CSO demands and positions for ngloeckl@realityofaid.org
a genuine outcome compact in Korea). In addition, the BetterAid
6
Country Outreach Newsletter
MEJN Stresses Importance
of CSO Participation for
Aid Effectiveness
The international campaign for a more
participatory development process in
the form of aid effectiveness was
highlighted in the high level panel
discussion forum, part of the World
Bank/IMF spring meeting last April.
Dalitso Kubalasa, Executive Director
of the Malawi Economic Justice
Network (MEJN), was vocal in
engaging Finance ministers and donors
present. He particularly stressed, the
issue of the need for greater
transparency on part of governments.
Kubalasa said that citizen
participation is a requisite to aid
effectiveness, but for citizens to be able
to take on a proactive role, they must
have access to information. He stressed
that the role of civil society
organizations and the media is crucial
in providing mechanisms for
accountability, thus allowing for citizen
empowerment. Furthermore, he
emphasized that governments should
not keep budget and fiscal information
to themselves. Finance Minister
Samura Kamara of Siera Leone added
that civil servants and lawmakers
should also be involved in capacity
building. He insisted that donors need
to remove aid conditionalities and
allow governments and their people to
spearhead development programs.
Finally, the debate also shed its
spotlight on the anticipated High Level
Forum on aid effectiveness to be held
in Busan this year. MEJN urged to
cover matters on how donors can
establish a truly citizen-led
development agenda.
Issue 4  May 2011
process facilitates and organizes CSO participation at the HLF 4
providing windows of opportunities for obtaining access to funding
and official registration for CSOs.
The presentation was followed by a workshop, facilitated through
IBON/RoA’s country outreach program, which sought to gather
feedback from participants on the ‘CSO Key Asks’ and establish
strategies to circulate and endorse the document widely. Overall,
the workshop succeeded in raising awareness of CSO’s
development effectiveness agenda, deepen the discussions on the
draft global framework for CSO development effectiveness and
come up with plans and mechanisms to coordinate national and
regional advocacy towards Busan.
CSOs CALL ON ASEAN LEADERS TO COMMIT TO PROVIDING
AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR CSOs
Jakarta – The Reality of Aid (RoA) joined 1300 other delegates at
the recently concluded Asean Civil Society Conference/ASEAN
People’s Conference, which discussed the people’s main concerns
across the ASEAN states and developed key proposals for the 18th
ASEAN Summit.
In a workshop on 04 May 2011 in Hotel Ciputra in Jakarta, RoA,
along with other CSOs across Southeast Asia, organized the
workshop ‘Civil Society Engagement in the ASEAN’. The main
objective of the workshop was to bring voices and perspectives on
civil society engagement at the national level, in light of the
increasingly restrictive environment that exists for civil society’s
meaningful engagement with governments in developing and
implementing policies and development programs. Despite this
restrictive environment, spaces for civil society engagement exist
such as on the aid and development effectiveness agenda. RoA
shared during the workshop the experiences of CSO engagement
with governments on this agenda in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Recommendations from the said workshop were included in the
Statement of the 2011 ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN
Peoples Forum which called on ASEAN member states to recognize
the civil society’s crucial contribution to society and respect their
diversity, expertise and autonomy; institutionalizing civil society
engagement with ASEAN and; committing to minimum standards
for an enabling environment for CSOs to reach their potential as
equal partners in development.
For the full statement, please follow the link below:
http://aseanpeoplesforum.net/media/press-releases/168-statement-
of-the-2011-asean-civil-society-conferenceasean-peoples-
forum.html
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Country Outreach Newsletter Issue 4  May 2011

About IBON/RoA’s
Country Outreach
The IBON/Reality of Aid country outreach program for the
broad implementation of AAA seeks to achieve greater and
more meaningful involvement of CSOs in bringing change in Contact us
aid effectiveness policy and practice. The strategy towards
this is capacity development of CSOs in order for them to Interested in
initiate policy dialogue spaces that allow for broader and
participating in country
inclusive participation of various kinds of CSOs at country
processes? Do you want
and local level. These efforts are expected to contribute to
changes in policies along a development effectiveness your country stories
approach. disseminated? The
following members of the
Country outreach work will be based on the country-level Country Outreach Team
plans of CSOs who are involved in aid effectiveness and are ready to work with
development effectiveness advocacy. A broad range of CSOs
you:
will be encouraged to participate and work together to engage
their respective governments, parliaments and development
partners in the achievement and monitoring of AAA
implementation. Nicole Benedicto
Team Leader and Outreach
Officer
for Latin America
nbenedicto@realityofaid.org

Country Ava Danlog

Outreach Officer
Engagement for Asia Pacific
adanlog@realityofaid.org
for
Aid and Development
Effectiveness
Myrna Maglahus
Outreach Officer
IBON Center for Africa
114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City 1103 mmaglahus@realityofaid.org
Philippines

http://iboninternational.org Nicolas Gloeckl

www.realityofaid .org Communications Officer
ngloeckl@realityofaid.org