It’s time poor countries take the lead when it comes to aid effectiveness and start turning down foreign aid that doesn’t comply with best practice guidelines, an aid expert suggests.
Developing countries should no longer waste their time waiting and hoping for radical changes to materialize at the global level, Jonathan Glennie of the Overseas Development Institute think tank says.
Glennie argues that even after five years of implementing the aid effectiveness agenda they endorsed in Paris, international donors have yet to straighten out their programs.
Donors have been previously criticized for failing to meet the targets they set out as part of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. A recent report release by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that only one out of the 12 targets were met in the past five years.
As Glennie puts it, “things are getting more complicated, not less. Incentives are changing, and not necessarily for the better, as economies fail and competition among donors rears its head.”
Glennie’s recommended course of action for developing countries: Take the lead.
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