Paris statement and the values promoted
Introduction
Argentine politician, academic and economist Raúl Prébisch develops in his work the concept of periphery center (1951), which proposes an explanation of inequalities. In practice, Latin America is the region of the world where the highest levels of inequality occur. In addition, within the continent, Colombia is one of the nations with the greatest disparities. In fact, Prébisch makes an explanation of a historical-structural type of the conditions that led to economic and well-being from one region to another. Prébisch’s thesis can be replicated in the global world in which domination relations occur between states. From this unequalitarian world arises the Declaration of Paris in 2005, and concepts that connect cooperation to development and official development aid.
Official development aid (AOD) is defined according to the OECD as “the flow provided by official bodies (state, local governments, etc.) aimed at countries that appear in the list of receivers of the Development Aid Committee (CAD) and, which promotes development and meets a series of concessionality criteria. This flow can be carried out directly to the recipient countries or through multilateral development institutions to these countries.”That is to say that help can be bilateral or multilateral. For many years, international cooperation has followed a pre -established pattern of displacement of financial flows of the ‘north’ to ‘south’ to support projects designed by developed countries for less developed or developing countries. In fact, the figures before 2005 are not bad in real terms, but they highlight some questions about quality, traceability and the real impact of this aid on the effective reduction of poverty. This way of operating and thinking about international cooperation has been questioned many times and finally countries realize that cooperation has failed. In a context in which countries begin to propose a new vision from the Millennium Declaration in 2000, the Declaration of Paris is one of the documents that propose concrete responses to the failure of international cooperation.
The Paris Declaration is based, in particular, on the statement adopted in the High Level Forum on Harmonization held in Rome (February 2003) and on the key principles proposed at the Dialogue Board of Management for Development Results held in Marrakech (February 2004), with the aim of increasing ‘the impact of aid on poverty reduction and inequality, growth consolidation, strengthening the capacity and acceleration of progress towards the millennium development objectives (ODM) ‘(according to Paris’s declaration on the effectiveness of development aid and action program). This treaty highlights the need to change the type of relations that exist between countries in the context of international cooperation. Proposes to move from a type of relationship based on financing and unilateral decisions to a type of relationship based on joint construction. The main challenge of this treaty is to decide on ambitious measures to reform the provision and management of aid, facilitate the application of the millennium declaration and the MDGs – which served as the basis for the subsequent elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – And take the balance after five years. The Paris Declaration presents a practical and action -oriented route with specific objectives that must be met for 2010. It aims to hold the states. However, the other actors from the international system has excluded in this matter (non -governmental organizations, companies …). These non -governmental actors meet at the Summit of Accra (Ghana in 2008) to take a role in cooperation. Then, to be effective, the development processes depend on the states, on civil society, but also on the economic market – the role of companies in international cooperation is defined during the Busan Summit in 2011. For Latin America – and many areas of the world, the current challenge would be to develop its own development models and ways to do, conformists with the needs of the communities and the values promoted by the Declaration of Paris.
In this essay, we try to clarify the contributions of the Declaration of Paris and the criticisms that have been made in the years. For that, we will focus on a summary of the Declaration of Paris, and some important aspects of analysis: a considerable contribution, an independent transnational joint evaluation, some unfulfilled objectives, and finally a lack of political commitment.
Summary
Paris’s statement is an international treaty that was written in 2005. The statement was symbolically approved by national development agencies and the leaders of the beneficiary countries that had met for the occasion. This treaty proposes the establishment of a new dynamic to improve public aid provided by aid agencies. In fact, this treaty is in line with the Monterrey consensus, which established a percentage of development -based development aid of each country. In more general terms, Paris’s statement is about how to do so that the USD 144 billion that comes from the Monterrey consensus.
Paris’s statement underlines two very important aspects: development cooperation and development evaluation. In fact, we can talk about development cooperation because this treaty promotes build more constructive relationships between actors, in mutual aid and in joint decision making; But also the evaluation of this development process is important, since the Declaration of Paris proposes to compromise resources to find out the actions undertaken and consolidate development projects through a framework and improvement processes. Paris’s statement aims to be an evaluation table based on five general principles. These five principles include twelve indicators that highlight the efforts that countries must make and situations that must be achieved to improve international cooperation. These indicators are subject to adaptation according to the contexts of the countries receiving aid. Each indicator is also associated with specific objectives to measure and monitor progress at national and international level. Then, the Paris Declaration is based on the following five principles that guide the joint commitments of donors and partner countries on the effectiveness of aid: appropriation by countries; the alignment with the strategies, systems and procedures of the countries; the harmonization of donor actions; results -oriented management; and finally the principle of mutual responsibility.
• Appropriation by countries: Partners countries exercise effective appropriation of their development policies and strategies and guarantee the coordination of development support actions. In fact, help is more effective when partner countries exercise firm and effective sovereignty about their development policies and strategies. The governments of the developing countries are responsible to their parliaments and citizens, not to the aid agencies, their development policies. In many countries, this requires strengthening parliamentary supervision of development policies and budgets. This implies the following: avoiding the imposition of inappropriate conditions, and using as far as possible the systems and procedures of the partners.
National strategies have been strengthened since 2005 and partner countries have integrated new areas such as human rights, gender equality and good governance. However, civil society and private sector actors have a broader role to perform in the participation in the process of preparing national strategies.
- Alignment with the strategies, systems and procedures of the countries: donors base all their support on national strategies, institutions and procedures for the development of partner countries. According to the principle of appropriation, alignment requires that beneficiary countries be the true actors of their development.
- Harmonization of donor actions: donor actions are more harmonized and transparent, and allow greater collective efficacy. The objective is to reduce the complexity of the aod concession and management procedures.
- Result -oriented management: resources are managed and the decision -making process is improved to achieve results. The difficulties, which are some internal reforms, development of human resources, closest links between the results and the planning and budgeting processes or accountability for example lie in the scope of the necessary transformations.
- Mutual Responsibility: In the Paris statement it emphasizes that, in order for the aid to be truly effective, it is necessary to establish more solid and balanced accountability mechanisms at different levels. In fact, donors and associated countries are responsible for development results. This principle aims to establish a true association between donors and beneficiary countries to improve transparency and control of development resources.
The challenge of the Paris Declaration is to reform the way in which donors and partner countries work together to achieve common objectives and make the best possible use of limited resources for development. In general terms, the Declaration of Paris, with its reinforced mechanisms of mutual responsibility, creates very strong incentives for behavior change.
Analysis: A considerable contribution
The high -level forum on the effectiveness of aid gathered many more and more representative participants than the previous agreements, with a greater representation at the ministerial level for both donors and help receptors. So, the Paris declaration cannot be seen as another theoretical contribution, it is a true structured action plan in five principles. For the first time, donors and developing countries have pledged to measure their success or failure in improving the effectiveness of aid through a set of indicators and objectives for 2010. The idea with these 12 indicators is to provide flexible criteria for countries and aid agencies to measure their performance. The objective is to create a stable and equitable relationship between the partners.
Paris’s statement emphasizes key concepts such as the socio -country. This specification of the terms highlights the type of relationship that is expected in international cooperation and provides a clear definition that serves as a reference. With this new way of doing, the treaty promotes the responsibility of all actors (donor and receiver country) in the execution of the action and their results, whether positive or negative. Similarly, it empowers local politicians, who are familiar with the context in which the action is developed and with the expectations and needs of local populations and, therefore, are in a better position to define action strategies effective and adequate.
ANALYSIS: An independent transnational joint evaluation
When it comes to the evaluation of the Paris Declaration, we must separate the evaluation table that is an integral part of the treaty and the evaluation process that has been launched to measure the effectiveness of this treaty.
We would like to focus on a specific aspect of the Paris Declaration: the evaluation of the application of this treaty in the specific context of international cooperation. The fact that states are clearly in favor of evaluation and, above all, that they make the decision to provide the means to carry it out demonstrates its commitment to that aspect and its desire to improve international cooperation. The evaluation proposes two phases to measure the application of the Paris Declaration in specific contexts: an evaluation of countries and an evaluation of donors and development agencies. The first phase has been carried out with the aim of strengthening the effectiveness of help by evaluating changes in behavior and identifying what are the best practices for partners and donors when implementing the commitments contracted in Paris. The second phase has aimed to evaluate the contribution of the declaration to the effectiveness of aid and development results.
Evaluations have been implemented after the Declaration of Paris to improve knowledge and dialogue with the countries and participating agencies, and have identified lessons and recommendations. Now it is about governments, agencies and civil society groups, recipients of this evaluation, put into practice the lessons and recommendations.
ANALYSIS: SOME FEATED OBJECTIVES
In essence, the values promoted by the Declaration of Paris seem agreed, but their use as an evaluation tool is debatable because it allows to evaluate development aid policies rather than the aid programs and projects. One of the working groups has published two reports that measure progress towards the 2010 objectives of the Paris Declaration. In general, reports observe that different sectors and actors are not involved in the same way, which generates a very slow change. In fact, the OECD points to the fact that the main obstacle is the difficulty of strengthening national help management systems. This difficulty weakens the application of alignment and harmonization principles, that is, donors do not trust national systems when they are not transparent or efficient. In fact, help should be more transparent and predictable to facilitate the planning and application of development strategies.
According to the OECD, the fragmentation of help also affects efficacy due to the large number of donors in the same country. In total, the OECD lists 225 bilateral organisms and 242 multilateral organizations that actively cooperate. Donors disperse their help, which is distributed among too many countries. In 2005-2006, 38 countries received assistance from at least 25 bilateral or multilateral donors. Actually, the volume of the AOD is below the objects of the UN, and above all there is still a part that does not contribute to poverty reduction. The improvement of the effectiveness of aid requires a real political commitment of cooperation actors to transform the logic that has promoted north-south relations for almost sixty years. The process of monitoring the Paris declaration provides a useful measurement tool, but does not emphasize the political dimension of effectiveness. In addition, greater coherence in the public policies of the countries donor to the development service remains a prerequisite to achieve the development objectives.
Analysis: A lack of political commitment
Progress has been made in the application of Paris’s declaration on the effective. Too often, the approach remains technical and avoids political dynamics that have an important impact on the efficacy of help.
For Manuela Restrepo Sylv. For the author, we must conceive a new conception of development cooperation that focuses on the cause of the problem and not only in combating its consequences. International development cooperation must be somewhat more political than technical, that is, it implies the cooperation of the political world to achieve its objectives. In 2009, scientist David Booth presents the results of a study that highlights some of the main obstacles to efficacy, such as political systems or corruption. He is in favor of a stronger political commitment in the sense in which donor countries with governments, parliaments, civil society and private actors are more involved in partner countries to reform the AOD. In addition, we can ask ourselves regarding budget support, which in theory fully complies with the principles of appropriation, alignment and harmonization, but which does not really guarantee an impact on poverty reduction. In fact, the traceability of budget support is often very difficult due to lack of transparency.
conclusion
Finally, cooperation is always a matter of interest. AOD donor countries have the need more than ever of cooperation to help improve living conditions in the south. This improvement in living conditions has objectives that affect the countries of the "north": among others, so that migratory flows decrease, and why these countries increase demand to get out of the economic crisis. In fact, international cooperation offers states to strengthen human rights, increase the level of development and consequently contribute to a context of peace; since world peace is a shared objective to all because it also contributes to allow international trade and economic development. Despite the difficulties found in the fight against poverty, we can affirm that international cooperation has improved in its functioning and effectiveness since the Paris Declaration. In fact, the practical effectiveness of the declaration can be questioned, since the importance of countries passing much faster to action always exists. But, countries evaluations show that the Paris Declaration has had a positive effect on the management of development aid, positioning itself as an engine of the renockeus, a tool for reinforcement and legitimation in the management of aid. In fact, the theoretical contribution of the Paris Declaration is essential, since it feels the basis for defining the association relationship in development aid.
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