Aid in Bangladesh?

BY IRIN
Nov 30, 2012
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Despite "relatively modest” development assistance, poverty and malnutrition remain prevalent in Bangladesh.

According to the Aid Effectiveness Unit within the Ministry of Finance, aid efficacy depends not only on the recipient, but also the donor. “The quality of the project design and the efficiency of the project approval and implementation process are the key determinants for development effectiveness,” officials wrote in a statement to IRIN.

“It appears that there is scope for enhancing development effectiveness in Bangladesh. At the same time, it is also evident that the economy has shown resilience in the midst of many different types of domestic and global socio-economic setbacks and political turbulence during the past decades,” the statement concluded.

Officials say the country is continuing to try to improve aid efficacy. Since signing the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, it has signed the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008 and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in 2011, which both included further commitments to boosting aid effectiveness and accountability.

Dhaka is planning to draft the country’s first national aid policy in 2013, as well as roll out an aid information management system to make aid data publicly available.

This article was first published in IRIN.