Latest news:

WECA project has been closed.

Report from the Southern consultations in ActionAid EU Brussels Office, Belgium, 17, 22, 30 May.

Report from the roundtable in Copenhagen, Denmark, 21st April

Briefing Notes available in French

Report from the roundtable in Banjul, Gambia, 28-29 April

Report from the roundtable in Kigali, Rwanda, 4 March

	What are your views on EC aid? Participate in this consultation.
	Have a look at the roundtables we are organising in both Europe and developing countries. They will generate debates amongst small groups of interested stakeholders to contribute to reflections on the added value and effectiveness of EC aid.
	Read our initial discussion note (.pdf) on EC development cooperation, which provides the basis for the current consultation phase of our project.
	Find out more about ‘Whither EC Aid?’ Consult the project’s background, methodology, and timeline.

What is WECA?

The next five years will be decisive for the future direction of international development cooperation in general and European Union cooperation in particular. The EC plays a crucial role in EU development cooperation, as a facilitator as well as a sizeable donor in its own right. Despite ambitious international aid goals, there is a lack of shared understanding of key underlying issues that shape the EC aid effectiveness debate. In order to move forward on the road from Paris to Accra and beyond, it is therefore necessary to map the different perceptions and assumptions shaping this debate.‘Whither EC Aid?’ is a joint ActionAid-ECDPM project on the future of European Commission Aid. Both ActionAid and ECDPM have long track records of working on EU development policy. We aim to re-position the debate on monitoring the effectiveness of EC development cooperation by seeking to open it up and bring in the views of a wide variety of stakeholders. On this website, you can find the latest information on the project and contribute directly to the debate about EC aid.

WECA closing strategy.

This website does not provide anymore possibility for external inputs and it does not provide further update either. But a final document summarising this process will be posted shortly.

The website will remain open for consultation.

WECA project has been closed

ECDPM and ActionAid International are pleased to announce that the WECA project has been closed.

‘Whither EC Aid’ (WECA) is an independent, joint ECDPM-ActionAid project that aims to contribute to a broader-based common understanding of the characteristics, added value and impact of EC development cooperation. After the finalization of an initial Discussion Note, the project entered a phase of consultations to stimulate further inputs from stakeholders.
In the light of the recent Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, the WECA site will be closed as an interactive forum. However the site will be maintained as a research tool, hosted in both ECDPM (http://www.ecdpm.org/)and Action Aid (http://www.actionaid.org) main sites.
In addition to this, the site will be opened for a month for comments on the Final note that will be published at the beginning of the same month.

Action Aid final position on the Third High Level Forum on Aid effectiveness.

ActionAid said today that key demands by developing countries and campaigners for immediate improvements to make aid work better for the poor were blocked by the US, Japan and the World Bank.

Hopes had been high that key reforms would be agreed to make aid more efficient, transparent and effective, but these were scuppered by back room deals dominated by donor countries. Some progress was made in some areas, such as the use of country systems, but overall there were few concrete commitments. The talks were convened by the OECD; a grouping of the world’s wealthiest nations.

ActionAid spokesperson, Wole Olaleye said “It is disgraceful that powerful countries have denied the poor a chance to benefit from better aid. Future aid negotiations cannot be run by a few rich countries. They must be moved to a forum where northern and southern countries can negotiate on equal terms, such as the United Nations, with meaningful participation by civil society.”

The European Union has supported developing country positions and hinted that it might consider making additional commitments to improve aid.

“Europe provides two thirds of the world’s aid,” Olaleye added. “It’s time for them to set the bar much higher and agree with developing countries the concrete steps needed to make European aid more accountable and effective.”

For further information.

DONORS AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AGREE TO REFORM AID, High Level Forum assesses the effectiveness of development assistance.

Developed and developing countries today agreed to take bold steps to reform the way aid is given and spent. After three days of intense negotiations, they endorsed the Accra Agenda for Action. Developing countries are committing to take control of their own futures, donors to co-ordinating better amongst themselves, and both parties to the Agenda are pledging to account to each other and their citizens.

Key points agreed in the Accra Agenda for Action include:
• Predictability – donors will provide 3-5 year forward information on their planned aid
to partner countries.
• Country systems – partner country systems will be used to deliver aid as the first
option, rather than donor systems.
• Conditionality – donors will switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about
how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s
own development objectives.
• Untying – donors will relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from
buying the goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they can get
the best quality at the lowest price.

For further information.