NETRIGHT organises meeting for women's groups

Accra, July 8, GNA - The Network for Women's Right in Ghana (NETRIGHT) on Tuesday organized a day's consultative meeting for women groups as part of effort to deepen their understanding and knowledge of the Paris Declaration (PD) on Aid Effectiveness. The PD on Aid Effectiveness, which aims at establishing a new development assistance architecture that will improve the delivery impact of international aid, was endorsed in March 2005 at the Second High Level Forum (HLF2) in Paris. Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, NETRIGHT Convenor, said it was also meant to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by the PD and associated new aid modalities for gender equality and empowerment of women. The fundamental system of Aid effectiveness is the need to ensure that development plans were nationally owned and reflected broad-based national priorities so as to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She noted that the consultative meeting would mobilize women to contribute effectively to the upcoming Third High level Forum to be held in Accra from September 2-4. Ms. Kathy Cusack of NETRIGHT, who discussed the topic; "The PD on Aid Effectiveness and its Implications for Gender Equality and Women's Right" said the PD had far-reaching and monitor-able actions to reform the ways aid was delivered and managed. She identified five principles, which were meant to sharpen policy dialogue and development cooperation in all sectors as harmonization, alignment, country ownership, managing for development results and mutual accountability. Ms. Cusack said the new modalities for aid had an impact on developmental priorities and long-term implications on growth dynamics of developing countries. She said there were still terms and conditions from donor partners, which affected government policy and autonomy. "Donors and recipients are not peers in this relationship. They do not share rights and responsibility. Recipient countries like Ghana are penalized if they do not implement the conditionality framework." Ms Cusack said donors continued to undermine country ownership by imposing their priorities and policies on developing countries. "The fact that bilateral and multi-lateral donors have a consensus that revolves around the control of budgets and financial management of developing countries' economies is not an accident," she said.

Accra, July 8, GNA - The Network for Women's Right in Ghana (NETRIGHT) on Tuesday organized a day's consultative meeting for women groups as part of effort to deepen their understanding and knowledge of the Paris Declaration (PD) on Aid Effectiveness. The PD on Aid Effectiveness, which aims at establishing a new development assistance architecture that will improve the delivery impact of international aid, was endorsed in March 2005 at the Second High Level Forum (HLF2) in Paris. Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, NETRIGHT Convenor, said it was also meant to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by the PD and associated new aid modalities for gender equality and empowerment of women. The fundamental system of Aid effectiveness is the need to ensure that development plans were nationally owned and reflected broad-based national priorities so as to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She noted that the consultative meeting would mobilize women to contribute effectively to the upcoming Third High level Forum to be held in Accra from September 2-4. Ms. Kathy Cusack of NETRIGHT, who discussed the topic; "The PD on Aid Effectiveness and its Implications for Gender Equality and Women's Right" said the PD had far-reaching and monitor-able actions to reform the ways aid was delivered and managed. She identified five principles, which were meant to sharpen policy dialogue and development cooperation in all sectors as harmonization, alignment, country ownership, managing for development results and mutual accountability. Ms. Cusack said the new modalities for aid had an impact on developmental priorities and long-term implications on growth dynamics of developing countries. She said there were still terms and conditions from donor partners, which affected government policy and autonomy. "Donors and recipients are not peers in this relationship. They do not share rights and responsibility. Recipient countries like Ghana are penalized if they do not implement the conditionality framework." Ms Cusack said donors continued to undermine country ownership by imposing their priorities and policies on developing countries. "The fact that bilateral and multi-lateral donors have a consensus that revolves around the control of budgets and financial management of developing countries' economies is not an accident," she said.