Eveline Herfkens on ACBF Senior Policymakers’ Knowledge-sharing Program

Eveline Herfkens, Executive Coordinator, UN Millennium Campaign and former Minister for Development Cooperation, the Netherlands

Eveline Herfkens, Executive Coordinator, UN Millennium Campaign shares her memoirs through the ACBF knowledge sharing instrument – Development Memoirs Series - on the theme Africa and Development Cooperation – Successes, Pitfalls and Areas for Further Reforms. Currently the Executive Coordinator of the UN Millennium Campaign since October 2002, Ms. Herfkens served as the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation between 1998 and 2002, concurrently serving as a member of the World Bank and IMF Development Committee. She is also a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, established by the International Labor Organization. Between 1996 and 1998, Ms. Herfkens served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the UN, WTO and other international organizations. Between 1990 and 1996, Ms. Herfkens was an Executive Director of the World Bank Group in Washington DC. Prior to this, Ms. Herfkens served as Member of Parliament in the Netherlands (1981-1990); Member and Counselor-Treasurer of Parliamentarians for Global Action (1985-1990); Member of the Economic Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; Co-organizer of the North-South Campaign; as well as Policy Officer in the field of development cooperation at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1976-1981).

Perspectives:

In her perspectives, Ms. Herfkens contends that development assistance has been of benefit to developing countries over the years. It has helped to build physical infrastructural, human and institutional capacities and deliver some level of growth in recipient countries. Through civil society organizations, it has been instrumental in raising voices on the need for good governance, to stem the tide of corruption, and to promote development effectiveness of both aid and domestic resources. She also notes with the same fervor that development assistance has equally had its negative results list: traditional technical assistance has tended to supplant local capacity, undermine local knowledge and institutions and render recipient countries more vulnerable and dependent on aid. Reasons for these shortcomings are legion. Donor-driven projects are not derived from aid recipients' development priorities and are an expression of an attitude by donors that "they know better', "they lecture and recipients listen", "they give and poor countries receive", "they know and recipient countries learn", "they take care of things, because poor countries cannot"... Hence, as it was once said, when a professional from a donor country moves into a recipient country he/she is seen as an expert, but when a professional from a recipient country moves into a donor country, he/she is seen as an immigrant, Ms. Herfkens observed.

These and numerous other factors, she argues, explain why aid has not succeeded in delivering development results in recipient countries. Trade is very important to developing countries. Yet, aid, because of donors' vested interests and recipients' development weaknesses remains a hugely attractive industry delivering billions of dollars annually to sub-Saharan Africa without tangible results.

In spite of this, Africans are not speaking out loud and strong enough on the need for reforms to make aid deliver results. They are also not raising their voices effectively enough to deal with distortions in trade. In summary, Ms. Herfkens notes that:

• Aid that undermines recipient's capacity and sense of ownership of policies and programs cannot support sustainable growth. It perpetuates dependence.
• African countries, leaders and professionals are not speaking out enough in support of aid reforms. Their reticence weakens efforts by development cooperation ministers in donor countries who stand against vested interests that are paid out of ODA budget, and who seek reform in aid delivery mechanisms.
• Billions of dollars are still spent on expatriate staff and their perquisites. African governments should learn to say "No" to supply-driven and tied aid. They should also say "No" when doing business with a particular donor is just too costly.
• Governments, policies and institutions must work in Africa and citizens should be empowered to hold their governments accountable for results. This is the essence of democracy. The capacity of parliaments and civil society organizations needs to be stepped up in order to promote accountability by the governments. This, for long, will remain a vital area for intervention in capacity building.
• Mutual accountability between donor and recipient countries should be encouraged and the existing platform or mechanism reinvigorated.
• The Doha Development Agenda on trade is not delivering results. Distortions in trade in agriculture are still a major challenge. Until rich countries open up their markets and reform their agricultural policies, success in achieving MDG 1 on poverty and hunger in African countries will remain a mirage. Rich countries' agricultural subsidies are an unfair trade practice. They are crowding out African farmers and destroying the livelihoods of small producers.
• African countries should strive to earn their external resources on the international market than endure endless lectures by World Bank and IMF officials as well by Development Cooperation Ministers from rich countries. Many African governments are still too focused on maximizing aid than trade opportunities.
• African governments are not speaking out loud and hard enough on trade issues. Trade is more important than aid. Poor countries still have very weak capacity for trade negotiations. This is a crucial area for intervention in capacity building. For instance, not enough negotiations have gone into the Economic Partnership Agreements.
• African Finance Ministers should be more vocal about the quality of aid, and should relentlessly advocate changes in donor behavior.
• African leaders like the former president of Tanzania, Benjamin William Mkapa, who is known all over as a person with enormous credibility and integrity, and who possesses a record of effective leadership in economic reforms should continue to speak out on trade issues; poor performance by the G8, especially on Glenn Eagles commitments on which nothing has been delivered; and the quality of aid, among other issues.
• In speaking out in support of the efforts by some Development Cooperation Ministers who are doing the right thing in the area of trade and aid reforms, countries such as South Africa (that is not dependent on aid) and Nigeria (that should not) need to do a lot more on behalf of the continent.
• There are a lot of success stories on progress by African countries in the achievement of some of the MDGs. Ghana is on track to achieving the poverty goal; 10 countries have shown strong indications in achieving the education goal; Mozambique has made substantial progress on the infant mortality goal; Tanzania has progressed on most of the goals; Burkina Faso and Mali are on target to meeting a number of other goals, while Senegal is expected to secure the eighth goal. There are other promising cases as well.
• Development assistance should be driven and guided by recipient's development priorities and capacity building strategies. Development assistance that does not have a clear path to sustainable capacity building and growth is of little or no value. To this, Africans must say "No".

Thus, in all, Africa must take charge of its development, push for trade and aid reforms and continue to invest in the development of its capacity.