Transparency International (TI) has warned that corruption would continue to undermine poverty reduction efforts if immediate action on transparency, accountability and citizen participation by aid recipient and donor countries are not adhered to. The Managing Director of TI, Mr. Cobus de Swardt made this known in a statement addressed to participants at the High Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness dubbed- “Accra Agenda for Action”. According to him, pledges made by donor countries to boost aid effectiveness through citizen participation, greater government accountability and transparency in the development process in the Paris Declaration in 2005, have not realised its dreams as progress still lags behind, as evidenced by the continued lack of democratic accountability to citizens in recipients countries. “We see this as a major corruption risk and serious threat to the global fight against poverty”, he said. The Paris Declaration laid out the principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing of results and mutual accountability to make aid more effective. Mr. Swardt believes that to salvage developing economies from the woes of corruption, the aid effectiveness forum of the Accra Agenda for Action, which is under the Auspices of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) must shift its process into high gear, in order to meet the 2010 deadline that has been set for full implementation of the principles outlined in the Paris Declaration. According to him, the draft communiqué for the Accra HLF does not adequately address the shortfall with the time-bound commitments and provisions for civil society participation, necessary to revive progress. He said, even thought the statement endorsed by the representatives of 100 developed and developing countries as well as multilateral development banks and agencies, clearly states the fighting of corruption as a condition for greater aid effectiveness, it provides no framework for action. “The persistent levels of poverty and corruption across the globe amount to an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. We need to see a targeted and global strategy to tackle corruption in the development process, or we will continue to see lives spent in misery and unpreventable deaths, because public institutions and the provision of health and education services simply do not work. We need to see greater local ownership of all programmes, a clear voice of civil society in the process and an end to pure donor-driven aid policies,” noted Mr. Swardt. In the fight against corruption as a pre-condition to achieving greater aid effectiveness and reaching the goals of the Paris Declaration, TI advocates for improving access to and the disclosure of public information to enable citizens, legislatures, journalists and investigators to follow aid given recipient countries. It also called for the cleaning up of public procurement and the sanctioning of violators in order to maximise development resources whilst ensuring better public services. Source: Chronicle