Quality of Aid in Poland: promoting good practices and Tanzanian expertise

Representatives of Polish NGOs working in developing countries met to discuss the ways to implement good practices contributing to good governance and enhancing participation and ownership of local societies.

The meeting was co organised by the AidWatch working group of the Polish NGO platform Grupa Zagranica and the Institute of Global Responsibility.

The main topics discussed at the meeting, were good governance, participation in the public space and access to information.

The discussion was preceded by the presentation of a report of the three Tanzania think-tanks Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team (LEAT), Agenda for Environment and Responsible Development and Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) based on the research and methodology used in the framework of the The Access Initiative (TAI).

The report contains several recommendations in relation to good governance and democratic transition in Tanzania such as:

• transparent procedures to ensure accountability of the right to information
• manual about rights to information and promoting civil rights
• good documentation of the consultancy processes
• increase in the participation in consultancy process
• transparent procedures in dissemination of the information about sustainable development

The report is one of the outcomes of the project „The Access Initiative: Good Environmental Governance - a Prerequisite of Sustainable Development” that is run by the Hungarian organisation EMLA – Environmental Management and Law Association. The project is implemented in 5 new member states of the EU and presents the voice of the NGOs from the global South.

Several conclusions and proposals to improve Polish Aid were drawn during the meeting that include both recommendations towards the NGDOs and the strategy for Polish Official Development Assistance. The proposals focus on improving the consultations and ownership with local communities, procedures of needs assessment of the projects of the NGDOs and better research based on the local expertise. The representatives of the NGOs proposed to elaborate the strategies for Polish Aid in the recipients countries, especially in the priority countries as Tanzania, which could contribute to improve of the impact of aid in long-term.

The project TAI and Development is funded by the Presidency Fund.

Information provided by Kordian Kochanowicz, Institute of Global Responsibility (IGO), http://www.igo.org.pl/english.php