High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness

2-4 September 2008

International Conference Centre, Accra, Ghana

See here for meeting documentation.

The Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness will reform the way developed and developing countries work together, to ensure that development assistance is well-spent and that it helps build sustainable economies that lift people out of poverty.

The Forum is open to media. Journalists are welcome in the Media Centre, which is equipped with wifi. They are also invited to join a field trip to a development project near Accra.

Organised by OECD and the World Bank, and hosted by the government of Ghana, the Forum brings together ministers, heads of development agencies and civil society organisations from more than 100 countries. Examining the results of development aid, they will examine what needs to change and how the international aid system can deliver the "best bang for the buck".

Using as their benchmark the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, participants will evaluate how well donor and recipient countries are working in partnership to meet their development commitments.

They will ask whether donors are providing long-term and predictable funding; co-ordinating development efforts within and between national governments including their developing partners; and are further untying aid. They will also ask whether recipient countries are taking ownership of their own development needs, working with their parliaments and civil society to set development goals and build the capacity to meet them.

The three-day meeting will close with a day of ministerial sessions. The OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, will begin the ministers’ discussions (read Gurría's speech) by introducing John Kufuor, the President of Ghana. They will be joined by national leaders and ministers from donor and developing countries – including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Liberia, Moldova, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam – and the heads of the World Bank, the African and Asian Development Banks, and the UNDP.

The Forum will conclude with the endorsement of the Accra Agenda for Action which outlines a renewed international commitment to take the Paris Declaration forward and to step up efforts to reach its 2010 targets. 

Journalists who wish to attend the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness or who would like further information are invited to contact Helen Fisher, OECD media relations, by calling + 33 1 45 24 80 97 or e-mail.

Further information is available at www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/accrahlf.