The poor have not been consulted about the current global financial crisis. So far, all gatherings have been of the rich, from the World Economic Forum to the G8 Summit. At some point in the future, poor countries will merely be requested to endorse the decisions already taken by rich countries and to pick up the remaining crumbs. Ironically, the five powers that decide on war and peace within the UN Security Council are also the five biggest arms dealers of the planet (China, USA, Russian Federation, France and the UK). Rich countries are also the sole decision-makers in the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund) that take money from poor and indebted countries. It’s time for poor countries to be given an opportunity to take part in these crucial decisions.
Governance and participation in health
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends billions on global health, is taking a direct route to ensuring global health coverage for all. NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in the United States received a Gates Foundation grant of US$3.5 million to help its correspondents produce 40 to 50 reports over three years on malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, neglected diseases and other global health issues. It came with ‘no strings’, reported the managing producer of NewsHour, which is seen on 315 PBS stations, noting that, if her reporters found a story critical of the Foundation’s work and Mr Gates objected, she’d let him defend it, of course, but was still determined to proceed with the story.
Health experts and activists have heavily criticised African governments for failing to collaborate with civil society organisations (CSOs) on health research and health policy development. Governments tend to perceive CSOs as a threat because they are independent, often critical of government and see their role as holding politicians accountable, health activists said during the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Ministerial Forum for Health Research in Bamako, Mali. As a result, many governments ignore calls for public participation. Without inclusion of CSOs, African governments' efforts to create sustainable health systems would fail. With increased partnerships between researchers, governments and CSOs, the health agenda could be taken forward more efficiently and in a more equitable way.
This article discusses the exemplary leadership women have displayed in organisations they lead in Tanzania, such as women-led organisations like the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Women in Legal Aid Committee (WILAC), Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA), Equal Opportunities Trust Fund (EOTF), Wanawake na Maendeleo (WAMA) and the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA). All these organisations have well-established constitutions-legally-binding documents that guide their operations, permanent premises, dynamic organisational structures and transparency in their operations as well as clean certificates of books of accounts. The organisations’ activities are generally recognised by the government, general public and the international community.
These guidelines aim to assist practitioners and implementing partners to run community-based worker (CBW) systems more effectively, maximising impacts for clients of the service, empowering communities, empowering the CBWs themselves, and assisting governments to ensure that services are provided at scale to enhance livelihoods. They are aimed at practitioners in government, civil society or the private sector already involved or interested in the practical application of community-based worker models. Topics include the generic components of the CBW system, deciding where to use a CBW approach, preparing for implementation and operationalising the CBW system. Descriptions are provided for the different elements of the system, along with step-by-step guidance.
The aim of the Round Table was to build upon the work of the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (AG-CS). A first point of consensus to emerge from RT6 was recognition of the many roles of civil society, and of the importance and value of civil society organisations (CSOs) as development actors in their own right and as aid recipients, donors and partners. A way forward was proposed, involving donors, governments, and CSOs themselves, and shared leadership for different aspects of this work. It includes working together to provide a more enabling environment for CSOs, working on how CSOs can develop more effective partnerships with each other, including North- South, South-South, global networks and national umbrella organisations, offering support for the CSO-led Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness and preparing the ground for CSO engagement in the High-Level 4, ensuring that a multi- stakeholder perspective on CSO effectiveness is a major theme of HLF4.
Malawi is poised to drastically expand safety nets to orphans and their families, and this study will provide an important foundation for this process. The study analysed nationally representative data from 27,495 children in the 2004–2005 Malawi Integrated Household Survey. It found that friends and relatives provided assistance to over 75% of orphan households through private gifts, but organised responses to the orphan crisis were far less frequent. Over 40% of orphans lived in a community with support groups for the chronically ill and about a third of these communities provided services specifically for orphans and other vulnerable children. Public programmes, which form a final safety net for vulnerable households, were more widespread. Free/subsidised agricultural inputs and food were the most commonly used public safety nets by children's households in the past year and households with orphans were more likely to be beneficiaries.
Proposed reforms to the way the World Bank is governed tinker at the edges, promising only marginal improvements for developing countries; critics are stepping up the pressure for a fundamental rethink. The World Bank board will discuss a package of reforms to the way the Bank is governed at its annual meetings in October, hoping to agree a concrete set of actions by next spring. Despite calls from developing countries, civil society and others for root and branch change to address the Bank's gaping deficits in democracy, legitimacy and accountability, the proposals are uninspiring.
The Paris Declaration flags civil society organisations as potential participants in identifying priorities and monitoring development programmes. But it does not recognise them as development actors in their own right, with their own priorities, programmes and partnership arrangements and fails to take into account the rich diversity of social interveners in democratic societies. Human rights principles and standards should be upheld and promoted to achieve Paris Declaration targets and indicators, including scaling up aid, reorganisation of partner countries’ institutions, procedures and national priorities, and meaningful and inclusive citizen-based ownership. As nationally determined priorities become the centerpiece of development assistance, it becomes critical to assess which processes are needed to negotiate them and how legitimate and transparent such processes need be. This requires a focus on the quality of relationships between citizens and states, and the associated processes and mechanisms fundamental to achieving meaningful and inclusive national ownership.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) were present in 2005 when the Paris Declaration (PD) on Aid Effectiveness was signed. Since then, diverse national and international CSOs have engaged in tracking this agreement, raised a range of issues and brought in different perspectives, to ensure the framework translates into effective and accountable development processes. In this paper, they argue that the only true measures of aid effectiveness are its contribution to the sustained reduction of poverty and inequality, and its support of human rights, democracy, environmental sustainability and gender equality. Ownership is essential, but must be democratic. They recommend putting an end to all donor-imposed policy conditionality. Donors and Southern governments must adhere to the highest standards of openness and transparency, and support reforms to make procurement systems more accountable, not more liberalised. Finally, the Accra Agenda for Action must recognise CSOs as development actors in their own right and acknowledge the conditions that enable them to play an effective role in development.