Asia-Pacific

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 17:26

Reality of Aid

Reality of Aid is the only major north/south international non-governmental initiative monitoring poverty reduction and development cooperation. It brings together more than 40 civil society networks involving thousands of member development NGOs in 22 donor countries as well as in Asia, the Americas and Africa. The Reality of Aid builds on a 10-year track record of independent assessment of aid policies and practices, and aims to contribute to more effective international aid and development cooperation strategies to eliminate poverty, based on principles of North/South solidarity and equity. It produces research reports and public education materials, facilitates sharing of lessons between member organisations, and lobbies national and international policy makers on development issues.

Published in Civil society

PRSPs in Asia

This review of early PRSPs in Asia found that experiences were varied, but common trends included tensions between line ministries and ministries of planning and finance, weak engagement by political leaders, challenges in relating PRSPs to sector strategies, and some promising involvement by civil society, particularly research and academic institutions.

Published in Development plans

Gender Equality and Aid Effectiveness - Challenges and opportunities for international practice: experiences from South East Asia

This paper is a report of a Workshop on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality in South East Asia, Bangkok, April 2007. It presents lessons from case studies in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Timor Leste. Workshop participants questioned how far the cause of gender equality is owned within most Asian societies and government. They called for more research and evidence on gender issues, including gender-disaggregated development statistics. The workshop concluded that (contrary to the views of many women's NGOs) the Paris Declaration is a potentially useful framework for making aid work better for women. However, some of the changes associated with the Paris agenda, such as the reduction in donor staff capacity associated with the shift to programmatic spending and the diversion of effort into technical aid-delivery issues, have reduced the space for gender work. Aid efficiency arguments tend to favour large programmes over small targeted interventions with civil society that may have greater impact on gender.

Published in Addressing cross-cutting issues