Aid effectiveness

International Alert, ISS and OXFAM organised a conference on "Aid effectiveness in Fragile and Conflict-affected Contexts: the New Deal Framework and Citizens’ Security" on 29th and 30th May 2012 in Addis Ababa.

We reported in the last e-bulletin that International Alert has been lobbying for changes in the way that overseas development aid works for conflict affected countries.

Since that report, when we told you that we had met Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, we have met a number of other parliamentarians and advisers who are playing a key role in drafting the forthcoming Department for International Development White Paper. This will be a crucial opportunity to shape the way that future aid is designed and delivered by the UK.

This month we welcomed the publication of the UK's new White Paper on International Development, potentially the most ambitious reform of the way British aid is designed and delivered since 1997.

Commenting on the outcome of the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, International Alert’s Director of Programmes Phil Vernon says: “As we expected, the summit has ended with commitments of more funding, and a big push to get as far as possible in meeting the MDGs by 2015. But there is also widespread recognition that they will not be met, and that the international community still needs to face up to the challenge of how best to help people and institutions in fragile contexts to make sustainable progress.