Aid Effectiveness Forum.

Byline: Amos Safo

Two days from today (September 1-3), top government officials from 100 countries will convene in Accra to kick off the Third High Level Aid Effectiveness Forum with the hope to consolidate the Paris Declaration. Its organizers and participants are also hoping that the forum will transform the aid process for the better.

One critic has argued that the Aid industry has no intention of changing its game, and its worst critics are in actual fact its best friends. Several other critics say they are only anticipating nothing short of Civil Society Organisations having the platform to bash donors.

Far from being a conference for bashing donors, the Accra forum will undoubtedly create the platform for people's voices to be heard. To start with, the development ministers and their partners will use the forum to demonstrate how transparency and accountability are essential elements for achieving development results which lies at the heart of the Paris Declaration.

Under the declaration, the partners agreed that countries and donors would become more accountable to each other and to their citizens for the use of all development resources and the results achieved. In Accra, the partners will pledge to pursue transparency and accountability by taking the following actions: (a) to make aid more transparent through the facilitation of parliamentary oversight in public financial management, including public disclosure of revenues, budgets, expenditures, …