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SECTION 1 2 3<br />

WHAT CAN BE DONE<br />

on treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS, and provide agricultural loan<br />

guarantees to farmers. 467<br />

In many developing countries, aid also plays an influential role in both the<br />

economy and politics. As such, when donors actively seek to invest in<br />

accountable governance and effective citizen engagement, aid can also help<br />

to counteract political capture.<br />

The USA, for instance, is seeking to focus agriculture investments in the north<br />

of Ghana – an historically poor region – channelling these through local district<br />

councils, in an effort to make the councils more responsive to local farmer<br />

input. In parallel, the USA is also supporting farmer associations to demand<br />

responsiveness from district councils; as a result, district councils are now<br />

demanding more support from central government.<br />

This kind of aid is crucial, but, since 2009, aid to civil society organizations<br />

has stagnated at around 14 percent of total aid flows by OECD DAC members. 468<br />

Meanwhile, the longer term trend is of donors increasing aid to the private<br />

sector; multilateral aid to the private sector alone has increased ten-fold<br />

since the early 1990s. 469 This is a worrying trend that skews priorities away<br />

from supporting public spending on good governance, public services,<br />

small‐scale agriculture and other inequality-busting public goods.<br />

100

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