GENDER EQUALITY AND AID EFFECTIVENESS A Briefing Paper

The realization of women’s rights and empowerment is a key prerequisite to a nation’s growth. This perspective has been recognized and advanced by civic movements and various stakeholders of different societies around the globe. For more than 30 years now, landmark international events1 underscored the significance of gender equality to development, charting a wide range of measures to carry out these goals as an “effective pathway for combating poverty, hunger and disease and for stimulating truly sustainable development” 2 (UNIFEM, 2003).

The world’s major aid donors, particularly the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC)3 affirm that they have long recognized the importance of gender equality as a vital issue for development and development cooperation. Since 1983, the OECD-DAC has acknowledged in various organizational documents that “Investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment is vital for improving economic, social and political conditions in developing countries within the framework of sustainable development. A focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment in development co-operation is a means to enhance the total effectiveness of aid. The knowledge, insights and experience of both women and men are required if development is to be both effective and sustainable” (OECD-DAC, 1999).  [read more]

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE FINANCE

Discussions on poverty reduction, human development, and human security are considered incomplete without incorporating the “climate change factor”. In view of this, typhoons, global warming, floods, landslides and other natural disasters can no longer be regarded simply as force majeure issues. As Christian Aid (2006) puts it: “The potential ravages of climate change are so severe…it could nullify efforts to secure meaningful and sustainable development in poor countries. At worst, it could send the real progress that has already been achieved spinning into reverse. No other single issue presents such a clear and present danger to the future welfare of the world’s poor.” Indeed, “climate change has become the defining generational challenge for the international community.”

With anthropogenic climate change sticking like the proverbial knife at our throats, the avowed role of official development assistance (ODA) was highlighted once more. Due to its versatility, ODA—one of the pillars of the “Financing for Development” architecture—is a de facto item in the list of ready financial sources for climate change-related programs and activities.3 As Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC acknowledged: “With appropriate policies and/or incentives, part of the additional investment and financial flows needed could be covered by the currently available sources” (e.g., ODA and foreign direct investments).  [read more]

TIME TO DISMANTLE THE ROOTS OF EVIL
A Citizens’ Report on Official Development Assistance (ODA)
to the Philippines

Civil society organizations have come together to an Alternative People’s Development Forum in Quezon City on the eve of the Department of Finance and World Bank-sponsored Philippine Development Forum that will discuss the country’s development agenda and priorities. The alternative forum was convened to present the Citizens’ Report on ODA, which are results of studies validating a crisis of official development assistance (ODA), as manifested by the grim harvest of scandal and anomaly that involved development aid projects such as the NBN-ZTE deal, North Luzon Railways Project and Cyber Education Project, among others. Among the highlights of the Citizens’ Report on ODA are the following findings:

• There is a consensus among independent Philippine ODA reviewers and investigators that “development assistance has become an oxymoron.” The volume of evidence, which includes reports by the Commission on Audit, show the preponderance of irregularities and corrupt practices as well as misdirected, ill-conceived projects that were wasteful, useless and burdensome for the people. These are compounded by ODA’s declining levels, diminishing human development shares, continuing marginalization of grants in favor of loans, bias for the more developed regions and longstanding implementation problems.[read more]

BUENAS O TODAS?
Ang Krisis ng Official Development Assistance (ODA) sa Pilipinas

 Halaw ang praymer na ito sa mga pag-aaral hinggil sa tulong pang-kaunlaran o development aid na isinagawa ni Dr. Eduardo C. Tadem ng Pamantasan ng Pilipinas mula 2001 hanggang 2007. Unang ipinahayag ang ibinunga ng kanyang pag-aaral sa isang “Pambansang Konsultasyon para sa Kaunlaran: Adyenda ng Lipunang Sibil,” na ginanap mula 13-15 ng Agosto 2001 sa pangunguna ng Social Watch Philippines. Unang lumabas ang ulat na pinamagatang “Official Development Assistance to the Philippines: Can it be Reformed?” sa lathalaing Public Policy, Vol. VII, No. 1, January-June 2003. Naisagawa naman ang pinakahuling bersyon mula sa pinakabagong pananaliksik sa pamamagitan ng isang gawad o grant mula sa Social Watch Philippines at ODA Watch at may pamagat na “The Crisis of Official Development Assistance to the Philippines: New Global Trends and Old Local Issues.”

Kinikilala ang ibinigay na tulong sa pananaliksik nina Ronald Molmisa at Annabelle Bonje. Isinalin naman sa Tagalog and pinakahuling ulat bilang praymer ni Josephine Jensen-Joson. Kasalukuyang naglilingkod si Dr. Tadem bilang Associate Professor of Asian Studies sa Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman.
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