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SECTION 1 2 3
WHAT CAN BE DONE
on treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS, and provide agricultural loan
guarantees to farmers. 467
In many developing countries, aid also plays an influential role in both the
economy and politics. As such, when donors actively seek to invest in
accountable governance and effective citizen engagement, aid can also help
to counteract political capture.
The USA, for instance, is seeking to focus agriculture investments in the north
of Ghana – an historically poor region – channelling these through local district
councils, in an effort to make the councils more responsive to local farmer
input. In parallel, the USA is also supporting farmer associations to demand
responsiveness from district councils; as a result, district councils are now
demanding more support from central government.
This kind of aid is crucial, but, since 2009, aid to civil society organizations
has stagnated at around 14 percent of total aid flows by OECD DAC members. 468
Meanwhile, the longer term trend is of donors increasing aid to the private
sector; multilateral aid to the private sector alone has increased ten-fold
since the early 1990s. 469 This is a worrying trend that skews priorities away
from supporting public spending on good governance, public services,
small‐scale agriculture and other inequality-busting public goods.
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