Tracking External Donor Funding.pdf - NDC

Table 9: Sector Working Groups and Subgroups
Sector Working Groups
Agriculture
Fiscal
Private Sector Development
Water and Sanitation
Municipal Development and
Local Governance
Health
Education
Social Protection
Judiciary
Public Administration
Civil Service
Security
Elections
Energy and Electricity
Environment
Thematic Groups and Taskforces
Fiscal Taskforce
Micro Finance Taskforce
National Nutrition Steering Committee, Pharmaceutical
TG, Mental Health TG, Non-Communicable Diseases
TG, Women's Health TG, Children's Health TG
Higher Education TG
2.3.3 The Critique of the Aid Coordination
Structure
Though the sheer amount of aid entering the WB&GS
requires a system of external aid coordination, questions
still remain about the effectiveness of this structure in
responding to Palestinian needs and priorities, and the
ability of Palestinian Ministries to put forward a
competent agenda to guide donors, as opposed to follow
them.
The blame for this cannot be entirely placed upon the
door of international donors though. While the donors
have changed the system to align with the principles of
aid effectiveness outlined in the Paris Declaration, the
ongoing occupation and political instability in the PA
have ensured that decision making power still rests in the
hands of donors at the capital level. Even with the
structural changes, and even with a competent stable PA,
the same client-recipient relationship would remain
(Khan, 2003). After all, it is the donor who gives the
money, or not, as the case may be. The response to the
election victory of Hamas in 2006 is only too clear an
example of donor’s political agendas overriding their
development strategies.
There is another important criticism of the system of aid
coordination: it largely fails to include Palestinian
NGOs 26 . Though critical to development, these
organizations have little say in the overall direction of
aid at the strategic levels. While International NGOs are
represented through AIDA, the Palestinian NGO
Network (PINGO) has continually asked the AHLC for
more representation and access to technical
information 27 .
26
27
A few PNGOs, such as MAS, are given ‘observer’ status within
SWGs. However the numbers are low and the placement is not
fixed. The ability to do little more than observe has meant that
attendance is low for the small number of PNGOs invited to the
table.
For an expanded and critical account of the Aid coordination
system, see: Brynen, 2000: chapter 4, Le More, 2004 and Khan et
al., 2004.
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