Simon Scott, OECDInternational Conference on MDG Statistics,Manila, October 2011

Development aid information management and its impact on aid volume

How can aid volume targets be achieved?

Pledges must be realistic:• Clearly defined

• Achievable

• Have political buy-in

• Be for short-medium term

• Apply at national level, i.e. not be just a global target

Measurement must be:• Continuous

• Politically visible

• Undisputed

• Apply to all pledgers

• Of an aggregate

• “Unfudgeable”

Good pledging

0.7% UN aid target, 1970:

•“Each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development assistance to the developing countries and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 per cent of its gross national product at market prices by the middle of the decade.”

Gleneagles G8 targets,2005 (extracts):

•France has announced a timetable toreach 0.5 per cent ODA/GNI in 2007

•The UK has announced a timetable toreach 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI by 2013

•The US proposes to double aid to Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010

•Japan intends to increase its ODA volumeby $10 billion in aggregate over the next five years

•Canada will double its international assistance from 2001 to 2010

Pledges that are more difficult to monitor

Copenhagen Accord,2009:

•The collective commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010-2012

Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, 2010:

•Australia will invest around US$1.5 billion (A$1.6 billion) over the five years to 2015 on interventions evidence shows will improve maternal and child health outcomes

•The UK’s new Business Plan for Reproductive Maternal and Newborn Health will set out how the UK aims to increase efforts up to 2015 to double the number of maternal, newborn and children's lives saved

Note: Total ODA excludes exceptional debt relief to Iraq and Nigeria in 2005-06.

Progress against the aid target forLeast Developed Countries

Aid to LDCs is much higher than toother recipients

How to do better in futureOECD-DAC Recommendation on Good Pledging Practice (2011)

Conscious of the need to ensure that donor aid pledges are credible, achievable, and properly monitored, DAC members will strive to observe, to the largest extent possible, the following principles in their future pledging practice in respect of financial undertakings towards developing countries.

1. Clarity. Pledges should specify all parameters relevant to assessing their achievement. These include, but are not limited to, the date or period covered, the source and terms of finance, and the baseline against which to assess any claims of additionality to existing flows or existing commitments.

2. Comparability. Global pledges by the donor community should be an actual sum of individual donor pledges, and these pledges should as far as possible be compatible in their terms, dates, baselines, and units of measurement.

3. Realism. Pledges should be made for periods and amounts over which those pledging have an appropriate degree of control and authority. The pledges should be reasonable and achievable in the donor’s budgetary and economic circumstances.

4. Measurability. Pledges should be made on the basis of existing measures of aid and other resource flows wherever possible. If the data necessary for monitoring a pledge are not already available, then monitoring responsibilities should be specifically assigned.

5. Accountability and transparency. Pledges should respond in a timely and efficient fashion to priority needs identified by aid beneficiaries, and donors should provide information sufficient to allow beneficiaries and third parties to track performance.

Thank youFor more information

www.oecd.org/dac