Following its International Coordinating Committee’s (ICC) decision in March 2011 in Härnösand, Sweden, the Reality of Aid (RoA) Network’s 2012 Report will focus on aid and the private sector. As donors channel more aid through and to private firms and banks, aid in the private sector becomes an emerging trend in development cooperation.
The RoA Report is a biennial report on aid and development cooperation issues written by authors from civil society organizations (CSOs) worldwide, whose research draws on knowledge and expertise from aid agencies, academia, community-based organizations, and governments.
Aid and the private sector
This emerging trend in development assistance is an aftermath of the economic and financial crises that drained the treasuries of developed economies. Donors have now organized new funding facilities and departments to blend Official Development Assistance (ODA) with private funds.
According to the RoA ICC, “the new focus on the private sector is based on the assumption that investment contributes to reducing poverty and improving lives. A vibrant private sector is crucial to development as it creates jobs and income opportunities, drives innovation, and is a source of tax revenue. But what exactly are the official donors doing in the emerging field of ‘aid and the private sector’? Who precisely do they support, and which criteria influence this choice? Which donor uses which tools, institutions and instruments? And what are the results that can be observed on the ground? Does the assumption that private sector activities supported by official aid lead to less poverty and better lives really hold? The research gap in this field is huge.”
Filling in the gap
The RoA 2012 Report claims its part in filling in the research gap mentioned above. With the theme of aid and the private sector, this report will be the first and most comprehensive piece of independent civil society research conducted. RoA’s unique structure, a North-South global advocacy network of CSOs focusing on reforming aid policy and practices, can provide both the Northern and Southern perspectives in approaching the theme. The Southern CSOs, close to the world’s harsh realities, can conduct case studies on the reality of aid and the private sector from a results perspective on one hand; while on the other hand, the Northern CSOs can scope and scrutinize the OECD-DAC donors’ aid and the private sector programs donor-by-donor.
Ben Patrick Soliguin is a Program Assistant at the Reality of Aid Network Global Secretariat
| Tweet | Share to Facebook |