|
|
Mr. McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what her Department's priorities are for Mozambique withinthe context of the new development plan for Africa. [46058]Clare Short: Our priority in Mozambique is to support the development, implementation and monitoring of the Government ofMozambique's own Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty, known as the PARPA. Many of the central themes of the NewPartnership for African Development, including the need for local ownership of development processes and for sound policies, bettergovernance and accountability to citizens, are strongly reflected in the PARPA.The New Partnership for African Development also calls for donors to re-examine their ways of working and, in particular, to focustheir resources on agreed priorities and to ensure that funds are increasingly channelled through Government's own systems. InMozambique, DFID and other key donors have established a common mechanism for disbursing aid funds via the Government's centralbudget, supported by measures to improve capacity. This is vital to improve accountability and the effectiveness of aid, by ensuringthat funds are allocated via the budget to the priority areas set out in the PARPA, and we are committed to increasing theproportion of our Mozambique programme which is channelled in this way. |