Transparency, Accountability and Results at the 5th AMP Best Practices Workshop

The AMP Best Practices Workshop, Development Gateway’s annual flagship event, took place for the fifth consecutive year in December 2012, in Dakar, Senegal.

Focusing on development related themes such as transparency, accountability and results, the event attracts a growing number of participants from countries using the Aid Management Platform (AMP), donors and partner organisations. Since the first event, organised in Nairobi in 2008, the AMP family has grown to 22 countries1, spread over four continents.

The workshops are designed around a series of thematic discussions and country presentations on key issues related to aid information, coordination, transparency and the usage of AMP. The aim is to facilitate discussion on key issues pertaining to AMP; challenges in aid information management and coordination; to foster partnerships among AMP countries; and to capture user feedback to strengthen the AMP application and program.

While the purpose of the workshop is to promote the exchange of good practices and lessons learned on aid information management, the event is also an opportunity for participants to tap into the latest policy developments in the field of aid effectiveness and transparency, thanks to DG’s presence at fora such as the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan.

Moreover, the workshops provide an exceptional opportunity for members of the AMP family to meet, discuss and learn from each other’s experiences, and thus further strengthening “south to south” cooperation. The recurrent “Country Expo” is a popular part of the event, which allows countries to showcase local best practices and solutions to common issues that may be replicated elsewhere.

The 2012 event, entitled “Resources, Results, Voices”, captured the state of play of DG and its partner countries within these three areas. In his opening statement, Development Gateway’s Director General Mr Jean-Louis Sarbib stressed the challenge in changing the reference framework to talk about resources as a whole, rather than aid solely.

Instead of the common perception of aid, it should be viewed as a catalyzer of economic growth and a part of a nation’s resources. As the emphasis shifts to resources, internal and external, and private sector contributions, the end goal for these should be to contribute to development objectives.

Read the synopsis in English or French.

At a practical level, this new approach is helped by countries linking up all existing systems, such as AMP and all national systems involved in resources processes, to ensure that the information is shared transparently and made available to all stakeholders, including citizens, and development partners.