Browse by Theme: Aid Effectiveness

Today, ministers and senior diplomats from around the world meet with the UN, EU and states involved in the Syrian conflict for a high-level Conference (5 April) to identify ways forward on the crisis. This happens as news from Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib in Syria suggests that an aerial bombardment using chemical weapons has left over 50 dead, and the situation escalates across multiple besieged areas across the country. At the top of the agenda is the question of ‘reconstruction’ – yet what does ‘reconstruction’ mean in a country still at war?

Payment upon demonstrating a set of agreed results is an emerging contractual modality that many donors are choosing to pursue. DFID together with USAID are leading this discourse and applying this funding approach to an increasing number of thematic areas, especially in health and education. So what does putting evidence at the centre of payment mechanisms mean for monitoring, evaluation and learning?

At the end of 2016 the Doing Development Differently community held a workshop to take stock. What have we learned over the past two years? Is anything actually different?

One of the trendiest buzzwords in the development and humanitarian sector at the moment is “adaptive management”, which carries heavy weight in focusing on MEAL practices while remaining neutral to political forces and the increased commercial pressures on aid spending. But what does adaptive management mean in practice and what are the key considerations to bear in mind in relation to programme design and implementation?

Cash programming has been under the cosh from certain sections of the media – so it will be interesting to see the response to the latest report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, published today (12 January 2017), which gives a strong endorsement to DFID’s cash programmes and how they deliver on poverty reduction.

According to a policy proposal released by the European Commission and European External Action Service on 7 June, the mind-blowing answer to that question is: yes. Stop migration to Europe with all possible means. Whether it is EU development cooperation or trade with third countries, or cooperation on climate change, education, energy, agriculture, you name it. All of these policies are to serve the purpose of migration control... IF member states and the European Parliament agree to this proposal.

Aid spending by the UK is once again in the news. This time a Mail on Sunday campaign and petition has secured a Westminster Hall debate on 13 June. Up for discussion (but not review) will be the 0.7% target set into law at the end of the last parliament that obliges the UK to spend this percentage of its Gross National Income on overseas development assistance (ODA). But at a time when there are 91 million people in need of emergency assistance across 35 declared crises, the highest in a generation, climate change is daily demonstrating its disruptive and destructive force on the lives of the most vulnerable, and global health crises emerge on an annual basis, surely the only thing outrageous about spending 7p in every £10 on tackling global problems is that it is so little.