Hot off the press

- Final Report for the Articulating Voice Initiative (Nov. 09)

- Draft Articulating Voice Inititiative Recommendations (to Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and the UN Development Cooperation Forum)

- Summary of the E-Consultation on Localising the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action

- Who’s Who - Articulating Voice Peer-to-Peer Exchange

In September 2008 in Accra, Ministers agreed as part of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to encourage developing countries to design – with active support from donors – country based action plans that set out time bound and monitorable proposals to implement the Paris Declaration (PD) and Accra Agenda for Action (AAA). Sri Lanka partnered with other countries in the region on an Asia-Pacific Voice Initiative that aimed at reflecting on experience to date with localising the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action in Asia and the Pacific, and building country capacity to influence the international aid policy process, and provide a more systematic articulation of evidence and concerns from Asia-Pacific to the OECD DAC’s Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WP-EFF).

Representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Samoa, Vietnam met for the Articulating Voice in the AsiaPacific Peer-to-Peer Exchange, held in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 26 October 2009, and highlighted how their participation in international policy processes comes with benefits as well as costs both in terms of the opportunity costs of staff time spent working away from home and in terms of environmental impacts. A number of international aid policy processes were highlighted during the exchange including the OECD DAC WP-EFF and the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) to be held in Seoul in 2011; the United Nations Development Cooperation Forum process; the International Aid Transparency Initiative; as well as a series of civil society consultations on the aid effectiveness agenda. Partner country participants focused on recommendations to the Co-Chairs and Members of the WP-EFF. It was intended that, through the good offices of the Members WP-EFF, these recommendations would also reach those involved in organizing other international aid policy processes.

Articulating Voice in Asia and the Pacific Peer-to Peer Exchange Participants

Siem Reap, Cambodia, 26 October 2009

Articulating Voice Peer-to-Peer Exchange

Session 1 – Opening

1. Final agenda (22.10.09)

Session 2 & 3 – Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action policies and action plans

1. Country level and donor PD and AAA Policy and Plan Inventory
2. First Draft Assessment of country level and donor PD and AAA policies and action plans
3. Initial summary of e-discussion on localising PD and AAA in Asia and the Pacific

Session 4 & 5 – Working together in the Asia Pacific

1. First Draft Report on HLF-3 Lessons Learned, OECD DAC
2. WP-EFF 2009-2010 MANDATE, Objectives, structure and working methods, 5th draft - May 2009
3. Draft Concept Note for the fourth High Level Forum, Seoul, Korea
4. Development Cooperation Forum 1^st High Level Symposium in Phase II (2009-10), UN ECOSOC
5. Updated Proposal on High Level Event on South-South Cooperation and capacity development in Colombia, OECD DAC
6. International Aid Transparency Initiative briefing document: April 2009

Background Information on the Capacity Development for Development Effectiveness (CDDE) Facility

1. CDDE Facility interim progress (September 2009) and CDDE Facility two-pager
2. Asia Pacific Aid Effectiveness Community of Practice Newsletter