“The Changing Development Context, Donors Presence, Aid Effectiveness
and INGOs”
Friday, February 28 from 15.00 – 17.00 hours,
218 Doi Can, La Thanh Hotel, Building. F1, Hanoi
Background:
Since Doi Moi, when Vietnam first began to introduce market reforms, the country has had a very impressive economic growth record, and the overall achievements in tackling poverty issues have been remarkable. The poverty rate has been dramatically reduced from 53 per cent in 1993 to below 19.6 per cent in 2006.
Continued high economic growth remains a top priority for the Government of Vietnam (GOV), the aim is to accelerate the annual GDP to between 8.5 to 9% in 2008 (Prime Ministers speech at Consultative Group Meeting in December 2007), and for Vietnam to become a middle-income country (MIC) by 2010, and industrialised country in 2020.
However, pockets of poverty throughout the country still present significant challenges, with higher rates occurring in the north-west and central highland region, where high concentrations of ethnic minority groups live. But also other and new groups of poor and vulnerable groups are faced with challenges including children, women, people with disabilities (PWD), people living with HIV and/or AIDS (PLWA), migrants, disaster-prone communities, and communities impacted by environmental pollution and degradation etc. Meanwhile, governance issues and environmental challenges are becoming increasingly critical in ensuring sustainable development.
It is likely that Vietnam will achieve it's goal of becoming a MIC by 2010, two years from now. This will lead to changes in the presence of donors and the ODA support to Vietnam. Sweden, is the first donor to have announced that it will enter into a phase out program from 2009 and beyond.
Meanwhile, donors and the GOV have been upscaling the aid effectiveness agenda in Vietnam during the past years through the Partnership Group on Aid Effectiveness (PGAE). These efforts resulted in the Hanoi Core Statement (HCS), a localised statement of the Paris Declaration,e ndorsed in 2005 by GOV and the donor community. The HCS was developed by the PGAE, and was endorsed at the Mid-term CG Meeting in 2005, and approved by the GOV in September 2005. The HCS comprises 28 Partnership Commitments, 14 indicators and 5 guiding principles, the HCS calls for changes in the behaviour of both donors and government towards aid effectiveness agenda.
The changes in the development context, donors presence, and the increasing GOV and donor aid effectiveness efforts raises a number of issues for INGOs, how will the focus and role of INGOs change, how will the funding for INGOs changes, and what how does aid effectiveness relate to INGOs.
Up to 2007, the INGO support to poverty reduction and development has continued to grow. In 2007, there were up to between 500-600 INGOs, implementing a variety of development programmes in all sectors and provinces of the country, with a total contribution of US$220 million (PACCOM figures). The total budget is expected to raise up further to US$250 in 2008.
Some INGOs have started to revise their strategies for Vietnam taking the changing context into consideration. Some INGOs and Vietnamese NGOs have started to pay increasing attention to the issue of aid effectiveness in general. This resulted in the establishment of the Aid Monitoring Group (AMG) in 20071.
However, the question of how aid effectiveness relates to INGOs is still to be discussed more broadly in the INGO community.
This INGO forum aims to address some of the issues and questions relating to “The Changing Development Context, Donors Presence, Aid Effectiveness and INGOs”
The meeting agenda:
1) NGO RC UPDATE - by the Co-Director(s)
UN-EU Cost Norms
PIT
INGO representatives to the Steering Committee
2) BEYOND 2010 [1] – Perspectives on the Changing Development Context, Donor Presence, and relation between the World Bank and INGOs by Martin Rama, Lead Economist, World Bank Vietnam.
Followed by discussion on perspectives for changing donor presence and INGOs.
3) AID EFFECTIVENESS, [2] Government, DONORs and INGOs – Introduction to the Partnership Group for Aid Effectiveness (PGAE), Government and Donor aid effectiveness efforts and preparations for the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. (HLF 3), to be held in Accra, Ghana in September 2008 by Cao Manh Cuong (MPI), Coordinator for the PGAE.
Followed by discussion on perspectives for Aid Effectiveness and INGOs
4) AOB
1. WELCOME – by the Managing Co-Director
2. DEVELOPMENT REPORTS & AID MONITORING
3. NEW INGO REPRESENTATIVES for the STEERING COMMITTEE & to the CG MEETING
4. AOB
Presentations
Background documents
Links:
[1] https://ngocentre.org.vn/files/docs/Beyond_2010_-_February_2008.ppt
[2] https://ngocentre.org.vn/files/docs/Vietnam_aid_effectiveness_INGO_Forum.ppt
[3] https://ngocentre.org.vn/files/docs/ingoforummeetingminutes280907.doc
[4] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/docs/INGO_Forum_Meeting_Minutes_2505.doc
[5] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/docs/UN_REFORM_1.ppt
[6] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/docs/UN_REFORM_II.ppt
[7] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/docs/onsultative_Group_Meeting_NGORC_Presentation.ppt
[8] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/ingoforummarch3minutes.doc
[9] https://ngocentre.org.vn/system/files/avianinfluenzapresentationatngorc2mar07.ppt