Panel Discussion

Government and private sector aid to improve health in developing countries has met with mixed success. There is no general consensus on what delivers guaranteed success in aid and development assistance, or on standards of accountability, sustainability of results, or measures of return on the investment. In 2007 a panel explored various efforts to establish accountability measures for donor aid, from the perspectives of representatives from international donors, aid recipients, and activists within the framework and principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The principles of the Paris Declaration are: Ownership, Harmonization, Alignment, Results and Mutual Accountability. This year we will have a panel present concrete examples of how organizations put the Paris Declaration to work and adhere to its principles. The Advocacy Committee of the International Health Section has invited a number of experts from various organizations and is awaiting confirmation as to who can attend the San Diego meeting. Four themes have been chosen: 1. Accountability: Harmonizing Donor Practices. Michael Hammer, One World Trust 2. Measuring Accountability in Aid Effectiveness: What and How to Monitor. Elvira Beracochea 3. Ownership and Aid Effectiveness: Carol Dabbs, USAID 4. Putting the Paris Declaration to work: Donors’ Views. Kate Tulenko, WB representative 5. Putting the Paris Declaration to work: NGO’s Views. Jay Gribble, PRB 6. The Paris Declaration and International NGOs: A Code of Conduct for Health Systems Strengthening. Wendy Johnson, HAI.

Session Objectives: 1) Identify principles of aid effectiveness for international efforts that can improve the effectiveness of international foreign aid to developing countries. 2) Describe how aid affects ministries of health struggling to manage multiple donors and projects in the context of their own plans for health development. 3) Formulate strategies donors, governments and development organizations can use to evaluate the effectiveness of their aid, with the purpose of making recommendations that could inform an APHA resolution.