Procurement and delivery
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Infrastructure to serve the MDGs - Part One
Maximising multilateral aid impact
Infrastructure to serve the MDGs - Part Two
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Infrastructure to serve the MDGs - Part One
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Topic: Procurement and delivery
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How can we use success lessons to develop effective infrastructure for MDGs?
- Trends
■ Forecasts for the demand of new infrastructure expressed at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ convention in Baltimore, 2004, indicated that approximately 80% of the world’s new infrastructure in 15 to 20 years time will be constructed in developing countries
■ With the large urban areas around the globe expected to experience significant growth over coming decades, it is very important that the infrastructure underpinning them be delivered successfully and sustainably
■ The provision of infrastructure is expected to be underpinned by poverty reduction objectives such as those relating to the stimulation of economic growth, the creation of jobs, the attainment of social progress and stability, and the promotion of sustainable utilisation of natural resources as opposed to a strict protectionist stance
■ Commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to poverty reduction in the delivery of effective infrastructure will require innovative responses from the engineering community
Reference
Watermeyer, R.B (2006) Poverty reduction responses to the Millennium Development Goals, The Structural Engineer.
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The Brown Agenda
The Brown Agenda focuses on poverty and under development. It attempts to address the need to reduce environmental threats to health that arise from ineffective infrastructure: inadequate shelter, poor sanitary conditions, crowding, inadequate water provision, hazardous air and water pollution and accumulation of solid waste. It approaches sustainable development from the social angle laying emphasis on improving the quality of life of poor people.
While the social component of sustainable development in developed countries frequently focuses on social equity, human health and comfort, safe environment and heritage issues (the Green Agenda), the creation of jobs and access to safe and affordable basic infrastructure for poverty reduction constitute the focus of the developing countries.
In order to meet the MDG of poverty reduction, a balance needs to be found between the needs of people and the carrying capacity of the earth in such a manner that the needs of future generations can continue to be met. At the same time a measure of social and economic equity between individuals as well as communities, nations and generations must be found. This is necessary to ensure that basic human rights are respected, a fair and just society is created and increased prosperity for all is achieved.
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Keep pace with the demands of economic growth, targeting key social issues for broader infrastructure access
- Lessons for the delivery of infrastructure for MDGs
There is a need to integrate the systems and techniques that have been successfully used in pilot projects into the mainstream of public sector infrastructure delivery in responding to the MDGs. Strategies include:
■ Have an effective procurement strategy that will increase investment in infrastructure, reduce corrupt and fraudulent practices and ensure allocated budgets are spent timeously
■ Pursue rigorous project planning that combines technical expertise with political sensitivity and engagement with stakeholders
■ Focus project development on achieving successful operations as well as the delivery of the infrastructure
■ Develop the capacity required to ensure effective and efficient implementation
■ Provide work opportunities to vulnerable groups and business opportunities to the marginalised to address poverty and inequalities within a society
■ Ensure that those targeted make use of the opportunity presented through the provision of infrastructure
Case studies
Watermeyer, R.B. and Thumbiran, I (2009) Contractor Development
Watermeyer, R. B (1995) Soweto’s Contractor Development Programme
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Maximising multilateral aid impact
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Topic: Procurement and delivery
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How can aid donors be engaged more effectively to deliver smart, sustainable growth?
- Key challenges
There are over 150 multilateral aid donor agencies. Some of the best known are the UN (and its various agencies), the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the World Bank (which usually gives loans rather than grants). Also there are over 50 bilateral donors and 230 international organisations, funds and programmes. These also look to coordinate significant proportions of their aid budgets through multinational frameworks (in 2008/09 DFID channeled over 50% of its aid through multilateral organisations).
Some key challenges are:
■ The multilateral framework is often regarded as an equitable and humane approach of channelling external development funds to developing countries
■ However because many of these institutions date from the postwar era, they do not necessarily reflect today’s distribution of power and influence. Nor do they fully face up to today’s global challenges: climate change, growing global inequality, effective humanitarian aid and stagnant progress against the MDGs
■ Still, international institutions provide an unparalleled platform for co-operating with others to find common solutions. Engagement to improve performance is key
- IMF and World Bank
■ Some argue that the IMF and World Bank have been misused by creditor governments and are not functioning as truly multilateral institutions representing all of the member governments
■ Their original mission and potential however is to act as champions of economic justice and enlightened globalisation – a key requirement in helping reduce poverty and shape sustainable development
■ Their high levels of experience and technical sophistication can be utilised if their true role is restored
The UN
■ A major challenge to the UN’s legitimacy and effectiveness has been the reluctance of powerful countries to cede more authority to international institutions
■ The specialised agencies such as the Children’s Fund, WHO, FAO clearly have a core role to play in future development and the UN is uniquely qualified in terms of work and operations on the ground
■ Re-engagement of powerful countries like the US in multilateral activities is key to making the UN work.
■ The growing role of China and other emerging economies in international institutions should be seen as an opportunity
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Align agency, donor and country goals, and give countries ‘ownership’ of programmes
- Multilateral and bilateral donors, as well as partner countries, need to harmonise their operational policies, procedures and practices and align their support with country-owned poverty reduction strategies. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) outlines a set of five inter-related principles to help in delivery of multinational and bilateral aid:
1.Ownership: Developing countries must exercise leadership over development policies and co-ordinate development assistance (implicitly this suggests donors should be enabling ‘ownership’ and reducing the imposition of outside agendas)
2. Alignment: Donors must base their support on the recipient country’s national development strategies, institutions and procedures
3. Harmonisation: Donors need to improve the co-ordination of their actions and adopt simple and transparent procedures for providing aid
4. Managing for results: Aid should be managed in ways that focus on desired results and use information to improve decision-making
5. Mutual accountability: Donors and partners should be answerable to one another and to their citizens for development results
- A new international aid architecture?
Only by acting together through the international system will an increasingly interdependent world be able to tackle global issues such as climate change and achieve the MDGs. Opportunities to go beyond the Paris Declaration to create a new way of delivering aid include:
■ Giving recipient countries a stronger voice on ‘Harmony and Alignment’, or even choice over donors
■ Streamlining aid through a smaller number of major multilateral agencies – see ODA reference below
Further reading:
■ ODA (2006) Reforming the international aid architecture: Options and ways forward
■ The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, 2005
■ The N-S Institute (2008) The International Development System: Southern Perspectives on Reform
■ The International Aid Transparency Initiative
■ Aid Harmonization and Alignment
■ Woods, N (2008) From intervention to cooperation: Reforming the IMF and World Bank
■ Sachs, J. (2005) The End of Poverty
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Infrastructure to serve the MDGs - Part Two
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Topic: Procurement and delivery
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Are development partners really helping low income countries to eradicate poverty and develop?
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Align donor and country goals to meet the real needs of the citizenry
- Eradicating poverty through the alignment of donor and country goals for aid effectiveness.
The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) best sets out how to align donor and country goals as follows:
1. Ownership - Developing countries should set their own strategies for poverty reduction, and improve their institutions to tackle corruption
2. Alignment - Donor countries must align behind these objectives and use local systems 3. Harmonisation - Donor countries should coordinate, simplify procedures and share information to avoid duplication
4. Results - Developing countries and donors should shift focus to development results and results get measured
5. Mutual accountability - Donors and partners should be accountable for development results
The Accra Agenda for Action (AAA, 2008) was drawn up in Ghana and complements the commitments in the Paris Declaration with four underpinning goals: Predictability, Country Systems, Conditionality and Untying.
- Sustainable development may not be achievable without the commitment to align donor and country goals to meet the real needs of the citizenry.
References
Foster, V. (September 2008) Overhauling the Engine of Growth: Infrastructure in Africa
Africon (June 2008) Unit Cost of Infrastructure Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa