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Polly Meeks

17 Jul 2017 13:18:05

Three months ago, we blogged that it could be crunch time for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC)’s rules on aid. These are the rules that decide how much ‘aid credit’ donors have earned, and hence how they measure up against the UN target that aid should account for at least 0.7% of national income.  When we posted that blog, DAC members had been given a deadline of 26 April to decide on the new rules, which would allow them to report more support for private sector actors in Southern countries as Official Development Assistance (ODA). We were concerned that the DAC was rushing into far-reaching changes, without having built in basic safeguards to protect the core purpose of ODA – poverty reduction. So where do ...

Polly Meeks

25 Apr 2017 10:12:03

Blink and you might miss it: but a seemingly low-key meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) officials this week could signal one of the biggest changes in decades to the way that donors think about aid.  That’s because tomorrow’s meeting [April 26] could be decision time on the rules governing ‘private sector instruments’ (PSIs). The proposed rule changes would allow donors to count more of their investment in, and other support to, private sector companies as aid, if those companies are doing business in developing countries, and if certain conditions are met.  Civil society, from both North and South, has been warning of risks in these proposed changes for months. To be clear: our concerns aren’t ...