Update from the BetterAid Coordinating Group

Thursday, 26 August 2010 13:07

The BetterAid Coordinating Group (BACG) welcomes three new members:

Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (Voice)

 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

The Zimbabwe Coalition for Debt and Development (ZIMCODD)

See the full list of BetterAid coordinating group members.

BetterAid actively participated in the second biennial high level Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) at the United Nations (UN) in New York at the end of June 2010, and contributing to the debate on development effectiveness and development cooperation more broadly from a CSO perspective, releasing an official statement at the event. BetterAid also took part in the preparatory UNDCF High Level Symposium in Helsinki on “Coherent Development Cooperation: Maximizing Impact in a Changing Environment” earlier the same month.

Civil society consultations on the implementation of aid effectiveness commitments, organised by BetterAid partner organisations Reality of Aid and IBON in collaboration with in-country civil society platforms, have taken place around the globe. The outcomes from these consultations will go to inform BetterAid policy positions.

BetterAid will next launch a policy paper exploring elements for a development effectiveness agenda in development cooperation from a rights perspective, to coincide with the meetings of the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness in October in Paris.

BetterAid launched a new website in June. The website is updated regularly with:

• News from the BetterAid platform and elsewhere in the development effectiveness sphere
• BetterAid position papers, statements and press releases
• Comprehensive information on consultations with civil society on the implementation of aid effectiveness commitments, implemented by the Reality of Aid and IBON
• A calendar of BetterAid events and events in the wider aid effectiveness sphere.

The website also includes a glossary of terms which aims to demystify common technical terms used in the aid effectiveness agenda.