Development finance includes official development assistance, which refers to all financing provided by public actors in the most favored countries to low- and middle-income countries in order to improve the living conditions of their populations. These conditions are related to :
Access to water, healthcare, and quality education,
The protection of biodiversity or,
Mitigation of adverse climate change.
While it remains difficult to assess the overall impact of official development assistance, three researchers from the University of Copenhagen calculated, in a study published in 2010, that international aid contributed to one additional point of growth in developing countries.
The impacts are there and the changes in the lives of vulnerable populations are palpable.
However, the effectiveness of official development assistance is easily criticized compared to the results of the colossally funded development programs deployed. This leads to the following questions, the answers to which could substantially increase the effectiveness of proposed programs:
Are they aligned with the real needs of the population?
Do they fit into the country's development strategy?
How reliable are the accountability mechanisms used?
Doesn't official development assistance fuel corruption to some extent?
Without dismissing the current cooperation frameworks, Addvalorem considers that there is always room for improvement and builds its reflection around the questions raised in order to propose an approach that makes a greater difference in the lives of communities.
The current situation is that proposals are often developed without involving the beneficiaries in the needs assessment and conceptualization process. This practice is justified, among other things, by a donor strategy that is often disconnected from the government's action plan, and therefore from the real needs of the people.
"This thought leads to the criticism of this practice, which has only weakened the effectiveness of development aid.
On the other hand, where the opinions of the beneficiaries are taken into account and where the different bits of intelligence and expertise are confronted, pooled, and synchronized to help find solutions, where ethics will simply no longer be ignored, official development assistance, whether bilateral or multilateral, will have more sustainable results. It will probably no longer represent a very important proportion of multilateral financing, because, in truth, it will be less and less about alternative development, but rather about alternatives to development.
Addvalorem C.F.R.M. Inc. makes ethical and sustainable aid a credo of its business model and is ready to accompany donors and recipients to implement practices that integrate sustainable principles for both parties.
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