By Kathambi Kinoti

The arduous work of engaging with the individuals, policies and institutions that drive the way in which aid flows from donors to less developed countries has been occupying women’s rights advocates for several years now.

There are currently two key processes that aim to address the ways in which financial aid from Northern- primarily bilateral and multilateral donors- is channelled to poor countries for development. One is the Aid Effectiveness process and the other the Financing for Development process. The Aid Effectiveness agenda was instituted and is facilitated by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD DAC), while the Financing for Development agenda comes under the auspices of the United Nations. The Aid Effectiveness agenda is grounded on the Paris Declaration, and the Financing for Development agenda is grounded on the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development. Women’s rights advocates say that the Paris Declaration and the Aid Effectiveness agenda are gender blind and too technical, attempting to make the delivery of aid more efficient, but undermining the delivery of development.

Women’s rights organisations have urged that the Aid Effectiveness and Financing for Development processes be integrated into one regime that makes development more effective. This regime should be within the United Nations system which is more democratic, inclusive and development oriented than the OECD DAC which is a group of donors. Nevertheless, women’s rights organisations have continued to engage with both processes.
In February this year, women’s rights organisations came together in Ottawa, Canada for a consultation on the Paris Declaration and Aid Effectiveness. The meeting was hosted by AWID and WIDE. Some representatives from the consultation went on to attend a multi-stakeholder dialogue on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness organised by the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness. AWID and WIDE were later invited to join the Advisory Group.

In early September this year, representatives of donor and recipient governments met at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana to review the progress made since 2005 in making aid more ‘effective.’ Civil society, including women’s rights organisations had an opportunity, albeit a limited one, to input into the performance review and make recommendations for improvement. The outcome document from Accra, the Accra Agenda for Action reiterated that ‘gender equality, respect for human rights, and environmental sustainability are cornerstones for achieving enduring impact on the lives and the potential of poor women.’

In October a series of meetings took place in Paris including an International Steering Group (ISG) meeting of civil society organisations. The ISG serves as a watchdog within the Aid Effectiveness and the Financing for Development processes. The ISG pushes for development cooperation and development effectiveness and one of its upcoming tasks will be to advocate for the next High Level Forum to review progress on the implementation of the Paris Declaration, to be organised within the UN system, thus uniting the two agendas: Aid Effectiveness and Financing for Development. Civil society organisations are now working on being included in the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness.

In December a meeting will take place in Doha, Qatar to review progress in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus. Women’s rights organisations are mobilising to participate in the meeting. One example of this is the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development which consists of a number of trade unions and a coalition of women’s networks and organisations. The Working Group participated in interactive hearings that took place in June this year in New York, and also organised a Women’s Consultation around that time.

The engagement and advocacy of women’s rights organisations in the Aid Effectiveness and Financing for Development processes has opened up spaces for their participation where previously they were overlooked. However slightly, it has also influenced the language of these processes, although not the main documents upon which the processes are based: particularly the Paris Declaration. At the AWID Forum in Cape Town later this month, women’s rights networks and organisations that have been involved in these processes will facilitate a session to take stock of their achievements and to discuss the challenges they have encountered. Their work has been an example of the value of collaboration and concerted advocacy, but a reminder as well of the continuous need to struggle for women’s voices to be heard at the highest policy levels.