Rise in corruption has mainly led to reduced cost effectiveness and efficiency of the development programs, states the Nepal Country Evaluation Report of the Paris Declaration that the national evaluation team submitted to the government recently.[break]
The report expresses serious concern over the lack of operation of control systems put in place to fight corruption.
Among others, the report has reaffirmed that aid effectiveness in the country has remained pretty low and donors´ assistances have failed to deliver output as per the people´s expectations.
Apart from corruption, which has been eating up country´s development opportunities, the report has also cited a number of other reasons for low aid effectiveness. The first and foremost cause in the list is increased aid flow without more absorptive capacity.
“Low absorptive capacity has remained a critical impediment to scaling up development and achieving results,” the report states, urging the government to work seriously to overcome this gap.
Overcoming the gap has become pretty urgent as people´s expectations have grown rapidly since the signing of Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2006.
The national evaluation of the Paris Declaration also mentions that the history of fragmented and independent flow of foreign assistance has been a major handicap to aid effectiveness.
“Increasing alignment of leading donor partners on education and health has build confidence on all sides. But it needs to be expanded in other areas as well,” the report suggests.
The report raises concern over the continued high proportion of aid coming in the country off budget. “Despite commitment to align such aid through national programs, off budget aid has remained the same (around 25 percent) throughout the last 10 years,” states the report, and pushes for strong adherence to Paris Declaration among donors.
“If the Paris Declaration is implemented fully, development partners can effectively withdraw the presence of their country office in Nepal and the country could make more collaborative use of the expertise that those remaining provide,” the report says.
It has pushed the MoF to revise the Foreign Aid Policy at the earliest to establish new policy framework to ensure aid effectiveness. The report has also suggested the MoF to restructure its foreign aid coordination division (FACD) with sufficient resources so that it could play its role effectively and proactively in promoting and monitoring aid effectiveness.
“Such restructuring is needed also for implementing effective aid management systems,” reads the report, suggesting the FACD to review draft national action plan on aid effectiveness.
The report pushes for wider participation of civil society representatives at level to build effective democratic institutions, which can function effectively for longer-term interest of development and people.
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