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Best Wishes to All.

'Affected by the financial crisis, the world’s poorest countries are facing a development emergency. Cutbacks in foreign aid and devalued currencies are wiping out aid contributions that supply the world’s poor with basic necessities - food, education, and healthcare. Billions of aid dollars are sitting in Washington, ready for disbursement but hindered by bureaucracy. Homi Kharas outlines steps to accelerate the disbursement of this aid so that poor countries can receive the help they need. more...

'In this paper, Jean-Michel Severino and Olivier Ray describe shifts in the objectives of overseas development assistance (ODA) over time and conclude that it is time to put the concept itself to bed - in favor of what they propose should be called “Global Policy Finance.”

'The concept of mutual accountability refers to the establishment of working relations based on respect, fulfilling commitments, being transparent about development objectives, and accounting for decisions, actions and results. This paper focusses on how mutual accountability in development aid is understood and how it works in practice in Afghanistan, while also examining the challenges involved in achieving mutual accountability in aid relationships. The paper concludes that mutual accountabil more...

'Ernest Aryeetey and John Page address Africa’s economic landscape and how policymakers in Africa can respond to the crisis as well as how the international community can support Africa through aid and trade.'
Source: Brookings Institution

'Development for All: Towards a disability-inclusive Australian aid program 2009-2014', ensures that people with disability are included and supported in improving their quality of life through all aspects of the aid program.'

'This paper seeks to outline a number of issues arising from the politicisation and militarisation of aid resulting from the use of comprehensive approaches, and to highlight the new challenges that this trend poses for civilian populations and non governmental
organizations (NGOs).

Through the examination of the Afghanistan case, it aims to explain some of the reasons for NGOs criticism of comprehensive approaches and their reluctance to collaborate with military actors.'

'Violent conflict and ‘situations of fragility’ represent significant challenges for aid effectiveness. Applying traditional development approaches in an unchanged fashion in such contexts simply does not work.

Aid can have unintended interactions with conflict – both to exacerbate or mitigate violence or the potential for violence. For this reason, CARE International believes that working in or on conflict requires a different approach.'

'Across all provinces in Afghanistan, there are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) delivering assistance in the midst of violence and political instability. Their ability to implement programmes safely and effectively is increasingly jeopardised by the deteriorating security situation.

In some districts, NGOs have significantly reduced their operations or even withdrawn entirely as their staff, projects and beneficiaries come under attack. In this challenging context, aid agencies have a r more...

'The recent rise of the Gates Foundation as a major donor of overseas aid has focused attention on the role of private institutions in development. Traditionally solely a funder of programmes – rather than institutions i.e. ‘indigenous capacity’ – the huge resources at their disposal has ensured that private philanthropy is now included in the perennial debate on how best to deliver development assistance.

This paper argues that there can be no sustainable socio-economic progress with more...