Wellspring works to increase the effectiveness of development aid in achieving economic and human development and works with development partners . In developing new ways to improve aid effectiveness, including including accountability, national ownership, coordination and and support for improved governance. We recognise that promoting widespread and sustainable development is not only about amounts of aid given, but also about how aid was given and are concerned about the fragmentation of aid into smaller silos over recent years. This is despite the growth in the number of development Partners/Donors providing aid and the intentions of the Paris Declaration, The Accra Accord and The Busan High-Level Forum.
In developing initiatives around aid effectiveness Wellspring draws on the analysis of the OECD while at the same time acknowledging the thinking of people such as Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo who has opposed development aid and in her book, ‘Dead Aid describes the negative effects it has had on development in Africa. We view lack of coordination, conditionality, the lack of capacity at country level and the precedence over national priorities often given to responding to donor demands, as being core challenges which we wish to address.
In wanting to democratize development, Wellspring is also focused on ensuring that donor funds do not inadvertently provide governments with an exit route from the democratic contract between them and their electorate, which views taxes and public services as inextricably linked and we seek to promote this linkage
Examples of our work in this area include
- National and regional capacity development programmes for governments, CSOs and donors in aid coordination and effectiveness,
- The design and management of donor coordination and ‘pooled fund’ mechanisms
- Facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes to better coordinate aid and promote national ownership of the development agenda in a number of countries
