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5.a          What is the Paris Declaration (PD)?

The Paris Declaration, endorsed in Paris, France in 2005, is a landmark international agreement to which over a hundred Ministers, Heads of Agencies and other Senior Officials committed their countries and organizations to increase efforts in alignment and government ownership, harmonization, mutual accountability and managing aid for development results, with a set of monitorable actions and indicators. The OECD country members have long recognized the core problems that reduce the effectiveness of aid in most developing countries. The problems related to aid that Afghanistan encounters reflectthese issues. The Paris Declaration provides general directions to donors and recipient partners to address these problems, in orderto make aid more effective.

Afghanistan became a signatory to the Paris Declaration in 2006. Since then, GoIRA and the donor community have taken multiple initiatives to comply with the monitoring requirements of PD implementation. Afghanistan participated in the voluntary surveys on monitoring the Paris Declaration in 2006, 2008 and 2011 rounds,as well as the second phase of the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Paris Declaration in2010. The purpose of the declaration and the subsequent rounds of surveys were to ensure better compliance and measure progress towards achieving the five PD principles.

The five principles of the Paris Declaration are as follows:

1. Ownership:Developing countries set their own strategies for poverty reduction, improve their institutions and tackle corruption.
2. Alignment:Donor countries align behind these objectives and use local systems.
3. Harmonisation:Donor countries coordinate, simplify procedures and share information to avoid duplication.
4. Results:Developing countries and donors shift focus to development results and results get measured.
5. Mutual accountability:Donors and partners are accountable for development results.

For more information, please refer to the OECD’s website:

http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_3236398_35401554_1_1_1_1,00.html

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5.c          What is the AfghanistanCompact?

On January 31 and February 1, 2006, 66 states and 15 international organizations participated in the London Conference on Afghanistan, which was chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzaiand UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The government of Afghanistan provided an overview of developments in the country and of its strategies, priorities and plans for economic and political development in the following five years. At the end of the conference, the delegates adopted the Afghanistan Compact, a political agreement between the international community and the government of Afghanistan. It established the framework for international cooperation with Afghanistan for the following five years. The Afghanistan Compact is a political commitment of the participants and not an actionable treaty. 

The agreement confirms the commitment of both the government of Afghanistan and the international community to cooperate in creating conditions allowing the people of Afghanistan to live in peace and security under the rule of law, with a strong government which protects human rights and supports economic and social development in the country.The compact followed the formal conclusion of the Bonn process, which had launched the reconstruction process in 2001 and reached its goal in the parliamentary and provincial elections in 2005. It serves as a basis for the next stage of reconstruction, which is to rely more strongly on the country's own institutions. The donor countries and institutions promised to support this process with a total of 10.5 billion US dollars. 

Goal: Increased security

• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">A professional and ethnically balanced Afghan National Armywith up to 70.000 soldiers is to be established and fully functional by 2010.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The police being formed is to provide reliable security in the country and at the borders.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Reduction of existing mine fieldsby 70%.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Disarmament of all illegal militiasby 2007 at the latest.

Goal: Drug reduction

The government of Afghanistan increases its measures to curb drugs, with the goal of completely ending the cultivation of opium poppyin Afghanistan and cutting off the supply of raw opium from Afghanistan to hinder the production of and trade in heroin.

Goal: Efficient executive

• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Government personnel are to be reduced to provide an efficient public administration.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan is to increase women's chances of working in government and public service.

Goal: Economic and social development

• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The government's revenues are to be nearly doubled to approximately 8% of the gross domestic productby 2010.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">66% of households in major urban areas and 25% in rural areas are to be provided with electricity.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">50% of households in the capital Kabuland 30% of households in other major urban areas are to have access to piped water.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">At least 60% of girls and at least 75% of boys are to be enrolled in primary schools.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">At least 90% of the population is to have access to basic health services.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The proportion of people living on less than 1 US dollar a day is to decrease by 3% each year.
• http://portal/portal/templates/ja_purity/images/bullet.gif); line-height: 19px; background-position: 18px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The proportion of people who suffer from hungeris to be reduced by 5% each year.

Monitoring

A Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, co-chaired by a senior Afghan official and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, ensure implementation and monitoring of the steps of this five-year plan.

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5.b          What is Accra Agenda for Action (AAA)?

The Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), also referred to as the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF3), was adopted in 2008 to accelerate progress toward the Paris Declaration objectives, and strengthen a number of commitments and areas of work. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness commits donors and partner countries to increase efforts in the harmonisation, alignment and management of aid for results, with a set of monitorable actions and indicators. The Accra Agenda for Action builds on these commitments.

The AAA was prepared through a broad-based process of dialogue at both country and international levels,through the work of Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and its joint ventures, regional preparatory consultations, the partner country contact group, the Advisory Group on Civil Society, and the non-DAC donor group. The views of more than 80 partner countries, some 60 CSOs, all DAC donors, and many non-traditional providers of development assistance informed the AAA. The commitments by all the participants in this process resulted in an action-oriented agenda that can support accelerated progress in aid effectiveness.

It adoptedthe following main principles:

1. Predictability– donors will provide 3-5 year forward information on their planned aid to partner countries.
2. Country systems– partner country systems will be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor systems
3. Conditionality– donors will switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development objectives.
4. Untying– donors will relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying the goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they can get the best quality at the lowest price.

For more information, please see AAA’s website: http://www.accrahlf.net/

Or: http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_3236398_35401554_1_1_1_1,00.html

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5.d          What is the role of UNAMA in aid effectiveness?

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is helping to increase the effectiveness of aid by boosting cooperation between the Government and donors. UNAMA has been tasked by the Security Council to lead efforts in donor coordination. To this end, UNAMA plays a crucial role in helping the Government create programsand encouragingdonors to fund the projects.  Another important roleof UNAMA ensures thatdonorsdiscuss new programs with the government and other donors first.

Through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2011, the Council decided that UNAMA, guided by the principle of reinforcing Afghan sovereignty, ownership and leadership, would continue to lead international civilian support to the Afghan Government in accordance with the London and Kabul conference communiqués, with a particular focus on strengthening coordination between international programmes in development and governance assistance, as well as between civilian and military operations.   In particular, it decided that UNAMA would promote more coherent support to the Afghan Government, as co-chair of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (and standing committees and HLCAE), in the ongoing development of the New National Priority Programmes, mobilization of resources, coordination of international donors and organizations and direction of United Nations support efforts in counter-narcotics, reconstruction and development activities.