Friday 8 June 2012

UNDP just released the 2011 Annual Report on the Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law in Fragile Countries

On 5th June 2012, UNDP released the 2011 Annual Report on the global programme for strengthening the Rule of Law in Crisis-affected and Fragile Situations.


 

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, presented the publication in occasion of the annual partnership meeting held in New York on Wednesday 6 June 2012.
The meeting focused on the importance of helping the countries affected by violence and conflict to establish and strengthen rule of law mechanisms and institutions.
The event took place just a few months before the General Assembly’s High Level Event on the Rule of Law scheduled for 24 September 2012.

 Today, more than one and a half billion people around the world are living in countries affected by armed conflict and fragility. 

The Rule of Law in Crisis Affected and Fragile Contexts is essential to restore those mechanisms and institutions ensuring the legal and physical protection for people and their property, equality before the law, freedom from discrimination, and redress for crimes and human rights abuses.

The rule of law is vital for cementing the social contract between the state and its citizens, and is critical for conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery.

 In the tumultuous events associated with the Arab States uprisings over the past year and a half where citizens have been demanding change, rule of law institutions – the judiciary, the police, the security forces, and the law-makers – have frequently been the focus of their grievances.

Where such institutions and their personnel are perceived to be corrupt and unable to represent and serve all citizens, they are also at the centre of grievances voiced by citizens in other regions. Through UNDP’s work around the world, we see citizens demanding assurances that the state – and especially its justice and security institutions – will serve the people.

 At a minimum, the legitimacy of such institutions requires:
  •  police and security professionals performing their functions uncontaminated by corruption and discrimination, and without brutality and use of excessive force;
  • courts providing timely and impartial access to justice; and,
  •  prison systems adhering to human rights principles.

Thursday 7 June 2012

OECD dataset on Official Development Assistance (ODA) - purposes and reporting procedures


The Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database contains ODA statistics reported by the members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and some multilateral organisations. It has been tracking this information since 1967, making it the most comprehensive global database on development assistance. It is the authoritative source of information for statistical analysis of international aid flows and cross-country comparisons due to its rigorous data validation procedures and historical coverage.

Members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

Features of the CRS database

The Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database includes the following information:

  • Recipient countries (possibility of grouping by continent or by income group) 
  • Donors (grouped into bilateral and multilateral) 
  • Sectors and Sub-sectors
  • Annual commitments 
  • Disbursements flows: grants, loans, ODA, OOF 
  • Channels of delivery
  • Type of aid 
Statistical data are indicated according to the purpose codes. These categories are defined by the so called DAC Working Party on Statistics (WP-STAT). The codes ensure a minimum stability in the statistical series on aid by sector (too frequent changes obstruct analyses) and enable the comparability of members’ reporting (lost if all members do not implement the changes at the same time). The full list of codes used to register and monitor ODA globally is available in the following document downloadable from the OECD website: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/6/2/49846064.doc

Reporting system

The objective of the CRS Aid Activity database is to provide a set of readily available basic data that enables analysis on where aid goes, what purposes it serves and what policies it aims to implement, on a comparable basis for all DAC members. Most commonly Aid Activity data are used to analyse the sectoral and geographical breakdown of aid for selected years and donors or groups of donors. But the database also permits to consider specific policy issues (e.g. tying status of aid) and monitor donors’ compliance with various international recommendations in the field of development co-operation. For this purpose it is extremely important to set out strict reporting procedures for the OECD's DAC member states. The DAC Secretariat assesses the quality of aid activity data each year by verifying both the coverage (completeness) of each donor’s reporting and the conformity of reporting with definitions (so as to ensure the comparability of data between donors). Prior to any statistical analysis, users are advised to examine the “coverage ratios” available on the website.

CRS dataset http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=CRS1
 Further information on the Creditor reporting system are accessible here