Posted 11 December 1998
"Assessing Aid-what works, what doesn't, and why" summarizes the findings of a multi-year research programme on aid effectiveness. Official development assistance has declined by one-third in real terms in the 1990s. There are a number of reasons for this, but one factor has been a wide spread view that aid does not work very well. "Assessing Aid" aims to understand when aid works and when it does not, so that the lessons learned can be used to make assistance more effective. A key theme of the report is that aid is a combination of money and ideas. Money has a big impact, but only if countries have good economic institutions and policies. The ideas - or knowledge creation - side of aid is critical for helping countries reform and for helping communities to effectively provide public services: education, health, water supply, and others.
The Africa Nutrition Database Initiative (ANDI) started in April 1997 as a collaborative inter-agency effort to create a common, low-cost database regularly updated with data coming from databases managed by different agencies. While the World Bank's Africa Nutrition and Food Security Affinity Group has been its main promoter, the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination/Subcommittee on Nutrition (ACC/SCN) is coordinating contributions of the participating agencies. These include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The database is not yet operational, but the initiative's primary objective will be to facilitate quick access to good quality nutrition data for African countries and possibly expand to other countries in the future. Apart from designing and implementing a new approach in data sharing among UN Agencies, it is also contributing to the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Mapping System (FIVIMS) coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
For more information, please contact Mr. Venanzio Vella, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington D.C. 20433. Tel. no.: (202) 4589123; e-mail address: Vvella@worldbank.org
The Development Forum is an electronic venue for dialogue and knowledge-sharing among members of the development community. It features an ongoing and expanding series of electronic Development Dialogues on key issues and challenges facing the development community and the world's poor, with a particular emphasis on learning from the experience of those who face these challenges in their daily lives.
The Forum's organizers will work to mobilize active participation in these dialogues by individuals and groups from developing countries. A particular effort will be made to reach out to partner institutions in developing countries - training and research institutions, think tanks, universities, non-governmental organizations and other development stakeholders - to encourage them not only to foster participation in these dialogues but also, over time, to take an increasing role in proposing, planning and leading on-line discussions and knowledge-sharing efforts on development issues of their own choosing.