A nine-member group of legislators from donor and aid-recipient nations have called for the involvement of Members of Parliament in the procurement and assessment of the impact of development assistance.
This is contained in a media release made available by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations Permanent Mission of the Republic of Zambia to the United Nations, Mr CHIBAULA SILWAMBA.
The members of parliament, under the auspices of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) – a global organization of Parliaments – made the call during their meeting with donor Governments and other interest groups at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
“Globally members of parliament felt they were increasingly left out in the procurement of development assistance in the monitoring and implementation,” said Zambia’s Lunte MMD member of parliament Felix Mutati.
Mr Mutati was one of the nine members of parliament selected globally to make contributions to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting under the theme: “The future of development assistance and role of parliamentarians”.
He said parliamentarians in donor and recipient countries want to be part of the process to ensure accountability and transparency in the use of development assistance.
The Lunte parliamentarian said in most countries there was no legal framework for MPs to make assessments of the impact of development assistance. He explained that the parliamentarians called for the enactment of legislation providing for their role in the procurement and assessment of aid.
“We are hoping that part of the resolutions of this particular forum will be a paragraph that will emphasise the involvement of MPs in the procurement, monitoring and assessment of the impact of development assistance” the Zambian parliamentarian said.
Mr Mutati – a former commerce and trade minister – called for enhancement of trade instead of donor aid, which he said had so many conditions and had turned into “a blame game” between donors and recipients.
“We should work towards abandoning aid to a more predictable environment which is dependency on national resources,” Mr Mutati said.
He observed that South-South Cooperation among developing nations was proving to be more efficient than the traditional South-North cooperation. “Donors have to wake up because sooner or later they will be overtaken by South-South Cooperation,” said Mr Mutati.
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) was established in 1889 and is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a founding UN Charter body established in 1946, discusses and makes policy recommendations on the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges. ECOSOC’s biggest gathering is the month-long Substantive Session divided into 5 segments ? High-level, Coordination, Operational Activities, Humanitarian Affairs and General ? held every July either in New York or Geneva, and covers global issues and technical, administrative questions, with a focus on pressing development challenges such as employment, education, health.
The ECOSOC High-level segment regularly attracts policy-makers from the top ranks of Government, parliamentarians, academics and others.
Finance and National Planning Deputy Minister Honourable Miles Sampa, MP, represented the Zambian Government at the ECOSOC High-Level segment’s Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) and biennial Development Cooperation Forum (DCF).
Zambia is the immediate-past former president of ECOSOC.
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intellectuals…..
I didn’t read the article. Someone simply for me
What do you mean; “someone simply for me”?
MPs (parliament) are the direct representatives of the people. As such, they want to participate in monitoring the so-called aid which is meant to benefit the people they represent, and those parliamentarians from the donor countries want to know where the tax-payer’s money from the people they represent goes. 40 years of aid and we’re in a worse condition. That calls for an explanation. You understand?
Boring and waste of time and money, can u post better articles pliz?
Zambia was represented by President Felix Mutati, not the FAZ committee member Miles-Away Sampa.
Happily going for the poison that has made zed poor.When are we going to wake up to the fact that no country ever developed from foreign aid?