Since the late 1990s, the majority of donor agencies, governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society have been discussing how aid can be used more effectively to contribute to development and reduce poverty. These discussions led to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005, and more recently to the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation in 2011.

Civil society organizations met with donor agencies and governments to negotiate this new structure in Busan (South Korea). In order to monitor the efforts made towards aid effectiveness and hold all actors accountable, CSOs united to form the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) in December last year.

The CPDE vision of aid goes beyond efficient disbursement procedures towards the notion of `development effectiveness’, where aid programmes and objectives also embrace and respect democracy, human rights, gender equality, social and environmental justice and consultation with and inclusion of beneficiaries. The CPDE therefore aims not only to monitor the aid effectiveness agenda but also to advocate for governments, donor agencies and CSOs themselves to adopt a rights-based approach to aid.

After discussions at the global level, there is a significant need to do more at the national level to build CSO and developing country governments’ capacities for effective engagement on aid effectiveness processes. The CPDE will facilitate national-level CSO capacity building and advocacy, and CIVICUS will play a key role in this as the CPDE Communications Secretariat.

For more information

http://www.csopartnership.org or email CPDE@civicus.org