NEDA starts evaluating effectiveness of aid on RP

MANILA, Philippines - The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has started an assessment of aid effectiveness in the Philippines in line with the 2005 Paris Declaration.

The Paris Declaration (PD) is an international agreement among donor and developing countries as well as multilateral agencies aimed at improving the quality of aid and its impact on development.

NEDA deputy director-general Rolando Tungpalan led a meeting with members of civil society groups and multilateral agencies for a country-level review of the impact of the PD on the Philippines.

“The country-level evaluation aims to document and assess the relevance of the Paris Declaration in the Philippines and its contribution to aid effectiveness and ultimately to development results,” he said during the meeting at the NEDA Central Office in Pasig City recently.

The Declaration is centered on five principles: (1) Ownership which supports developing countries to set their own development strategies; (2)

Alignment which calls for development partners to align with local development strategies and use local systems; (3) Harmonization which aims

to reduce duplication of processes; (4) Managing for Results which shifts focus to achieving measurable development results; and (5) Mutual

Accountability which makes development partners and countries both accountable for development results.

Meeting participants included the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Commission on Audit (COA),

the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the European Commission Delegation to the Philippines. Representatives from the IBON Foundation and the

University of the Philippines School of Economics also participated.

Tungpalan, who is also the PD Evaluation Phase II National Evaluation Coordinator (NEC), explained that the country-level evaluation will take

into account the context of the PD, identifying the important factors that affected its relevance and implementation

Furthermore, the assessment will also look into how the PD implementation has led to improvements in efficiency of aid delivery, use of aid, and better partnership. Development outcomes will also be studied, reviewing if the PD implementation strengthened contribution of aid to sustainable development results.

The Philippine evaluation report, along with other country reports, will be part of a final synthesis report to be presented in the fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness in 2011 in Seoul, South Korea.