Money can't buy you love: Partnership prospects for donor budget support
Source: EURODAD
This article reports on the OECD-DAC Conference to disseminate the Evaluation of General Budget Support on 9th and 10th May 2006. The article summarises the evaluation which examines seven country case studies: Burkino Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicargua, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam. It states the main positive conclusions, the main negative conclusions and the key recommendations that the evaluation makes. It then summarises the NGO assessment of the evaluation. NGOs welcomed the evaluation but felt that the question of domestic accountability was missing. Furthermore, NGO representatives welcomed the recognition that a rigid link between the IMF's PRGF and General Budget Support disbursment conditions can lead to unnecessary volatility and endorsed the recommendation that donors refrain from tying general budget support funds to the IMF's macroeconomic conditions. However, they expressed their concern that the IMF nonetheless dominates in an environment where there is little openness in terms of its advice to government. Macroeconomic discussions are still largely held between the IMF, Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.
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