Case stories on capacity development and sustainable results

ETHIOPIA11and view profiles of individualdonor partners. This project reflectsnot only Ethiopia’s interestin boosting aid transparencyand accountability, but its growingcapacity to design and implementsophisticated softwareprograms and data managementprocesses.Support to the capacitydevelopment processEnhanced performanceThe Ministry of Finance and EconomicDevelopment has embraced the aid managementplatform and has introducedcustomizations designed for the Government’sparticular needs and capabilities.The ministry created new sector codingschemes, implemented a module to trackprogress in achieving the indicators of theParis Declaration, and helped develop anational planning dashboard that is nowalso used in other countries. The Ministryalso plans to enhance the platform’sgeospatial functionalities, allowing usersto enter and track data on basket funds,and integrate the platform with the Government’ssystem for managing budgetand financial information (the IntegratedFinancial Management Information System).The Minister for Finance and EconomicDevelopment, H.E. Ato Sufian Ahmed,asked that data captured by the platformbe made available to the public online.During 2011, the Ministry has workedto validate the platform’s dataset and developtechnical requirements for a ‘PublicView’ website for the platform. On thewebsite, anyone with internet access willbe able to browse development assistanceprojects in Ethiopia, produce customisedreports on official development assistance,National investmentsThe Ministry of Finance andEconomic Development played a key rolein designing, piloting, and customizingthe system, contributing considerable resourcesand staff hours to training programmes,data management forums, anddiscussions with Development Gatewayon technical requirements. The systemnow has 171 users, 35 of whom have beentrained as advanced users, business us-Capacity development investmentsAn Aid Management Platform was introducedto help collect, monitor, and report on officialdevelopment assistance.The system has been customised to suit theGovernment’s specific capacity needs.New sector coding schemes have beenintroduced and a module to track progress inachieving the indicators of the Paris Declarationimplemented; a national planning dashboard hasalso been developed.The aid information system is being madeaccessible to the public, reflecting theGovernment commitment in boosting aidtransparency and accountability.Country ownership and a government-ledprocess are critical success factors, as well asconsultations with development partners and anincremental, programmatic approach.