Global launch of campaign ”Better Aid for the World We Want”

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty civil society organizations all around the world launch a global campaign calling for a public support for firm political commitments that will make development aid truly work.

The ITUC is an active member of the BetterAid platform, working hand in hand with other CSOs on the issues of development effectiveness in the lead up to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) in Busan in 2011. The ITUC is represented in the BetterAid platform by the Trade Union Development Cooperation Network.

Today, on the 17th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, civil society organizations all around the world officially launch the “Better Aid for the world we want” campaign, mobilizing public support for the civil society asks towards the upcoming High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that will take place in Busan, South Korea in November this year.

“This is the crucial time for governments to make sure that development cooperation actually deliver and promote gender equality and human rights, resulting in better lives for all,” says Katarzyna Staszewska from Women In Development Europe (WIDE) and the BetterAid CSO platform.

US$ 130 billion is given each year in aid for development. With the current global finance, climate change and food crises hitting the poorest hardest, there is an even greater need for this aid to work for the most deprived. Governments committing to using this money more wisely could help to do this by making every aid dollar spent count. Moreover, cooperation between governments, and civil society organizations that represent the very people that aid is meant to support, is imperative for effective mutual development efforts.

Busan is where decision makers from countries all over the world will come together to look at how well they have kept their aid effectiveness commitments, and to make new ones for the coming years.

“Recent evaluations have shown the scale of donor’s underperformance on commitments that were not sufficient in making effective development possible in the first place. Many donors are now even abandoning their promises on making aid effective.” says Jenny Del Rosario Malonzo from Reality of Aid, Philippines.

Campaign events, led by Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), in cooperation with the BetterAid CSO platform and the support of Open Forum, will take place tomorrow in Uganda, Liberia, Ghana, Malawi, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, India, Argentina and Nicaragua, encouraging the public to sign the petition asking governments to ensure that citizens’ voices are heard in development and aid decisions. The signatures will be collected on the campaign postcards as well as online at www.betteraid.org/campaign.

“This campaign is part of the wider ‘The World We Want’ actions that are being taken across the world on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty – and puts citizens at the forefront of the effort to hold governments accountable to meet their promise to end poverty and inequality,” says Deo Nyazi of GCAP Africa. “The aim is to collect 10,000 signatures globally by the end of November, when the High Level Forum starts.”

At the Fourth High Level on Aid Effectiveness, civil society organizations are calling for governments to:
1. fully evaluate and deepen existing aid effectiveness commitments (Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action)
2. commit to a human rights based approach to development and development cooperation with gender equality, decent work and environmental sustainability at the centre
3. agree minimum standards to support the work of civil society organizations as development actors in their own right
4. initiate fundamental reforms for fairer aid governance at the crucial high level forum on aid effectiveness which starts in November in Busan, Korea.

Who we are:

BetterAid unites nearly one thousand development organizations from civil society worldwide, and has been working on development cooperation and challenging the aid effectiveness agenda since January 2007. BetterAid is leading many of the civil society activities including in-country consultations, studies and monitoring, in the lead up to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan in November/December 2011. www.betteraid.org

Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness is a global, fully participatory consultation process run by and for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to build an international CSO consensus on common development effectiveness standards and enabling conditions required from governments and donors. Based on consolidated inputs from thousands of CSOs worldwide, the Open Forum has finalized the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness – an integral part of CSO Key Asks for the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that details the role of CSOs as independent development actors, and a distinct long-term reference for the development work of CSOs worldwide. www.cso-effectiveness.org

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) works to challenge the institutions and processes that perpetuate poverty and inequality across the world in order to defend and promote human rights, gender justice, social justice and security needed for survival and peace. GCAP works through national coalitions, constituency groups and supporting organization located in 100+ countries. On the ground, GCAP has mobilized over 173 million people through actions such as ‘Stand Up’, Poverty Hearings and Women’s Tribunals. www.whiteband.org

Press contact, BetterAid: Clare Birkett, +32 (0)487270536
Press contact, Open Forum: Olga Kozhaeva, +32 (0)2 743 87 89
Press contact, GCAP, Rajiv Joshi (New York): +1 9175456101 / [email protected]