Africa's Fragile States Call for Paradigm Shift in Aid Efficiency

Finance ministers from different fragile states of Africa who met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a two day Africa regional meet
ing on peace and state building, call for paradigm shift in aid delivery and management. Transparency and accountability is needed from aid recipients while there has to be sensitivity from the donors side with shared responsibility, according to the finance Ministers who briefed journalists yesterday (September 8, 2011). “It can’t be business as usual; we call for new aid efficiency architecture,” said representative of Guinea. According to the World Development Report 2011 of the World Bank,, no fragile state will attain a single goal of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) due to prolonged conflicts poor aid management capacity. Conflict-affected and fragile states recognize that aid is not delivering results in their countries and a new paradigm of international engagement is required. To evaluate previous aid related practices and recommend new effective aid delivery and management mechanisms, a global aid efficiency summit (Fourth High level Forum on Aid Effectiveness –HLF4) is set to take place in Busan, South Korea at the end of November 2011. According to the statement dispatched during the conference, HLF4 is expected to revitalize existing commitments and sustain the political momentum. “Developing countries have identified their priorities for HLF4 as: predictable aid, use of country system, end to policy conditionality, country-driven capacity development, mutual accountability and reduced transaction costs.” The meeting of Addis, which also includes representatives of multilateral and bilateral donors is expected to create linkages between actors, identify common messages that can be taken to the HLF4 and practices that can be implemented to improve the effectiveness of peace and state-building. According to the World Bank, low income fragile and conflict-affected states spend 131 US dollars per person on government services (purchasing power parity adjusted), while citizens in non-fragile or conflict-affected countries get 267 US dollars worth of government services in education, health, military and security, administration every year. Over the last 20 years, countries with longer periods of fragility, violence or conflict experienced more aid volatility. On average, a country with 20 years of violence experienced twice the volatility in aid of a country that did not experience violence. Globally more than 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by violent conflict, according to the World Development Report 2011.