1. Monitoring Real Aid: Tools and Methodologies Romilly Greenhill Workshop for Elective Members on Supervising Aid Hanoi, October 2007

2. Step 1: Assessing Aid Requirements  How much aid does Vietnam need to meet the Millennium Development Goals? Draw on established costings and methodologies by UN, World Bank and other sources  How much aid does Vietnam currently receive?  In which sectors does Vietnam need this aid to meet the MDGs or the national development strategy? Has the government done any costing of this? Have any of the donors?  In which sectors does Vietnam currently receive aid?  Outcome: Assessment of whether Vietnam is receiving enough aid to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and whether it is receiving this aid in the right sectors

3. Step 2: Aid and debt repayments  How much of Vietnam’s aid goes out in the form of debt repayments? Approximately half of all Vietnam’s aid is spent on debt repayments  Which are Vietnam’s major creditors?  Why did they lend the money? Was it for geopolitical reasons, or did it genuinely benefit the Vietnamese people?  How much debt has Vietnam already repaid? In some cases, countries end up repaying much more than they borrowed because of interest payments.  Outcome: Assessment of how much of Vietnam’s aid is spent on debt repayments, and how much of this debt is illegitimate – it should not be repaid

4. Step 3: Conditionality  What conditions are attached to the Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC)? Does the IMF have a programme in Vietnam and if so what are the conditions? The World Bank and IMF websites include this information. If it is not accessible, the World Bank or other donors should provide this information if asked  Are these conditions drawn from Vietnam’s existing national plans?  Do IMF conditions limit the amount the government can spend in total, including on health and education?  What will the impacts of the policies included as conditions be? Have the donors done any poverty and social impact assessment of the policies? Has the government?  Has the National Assembly debated the policies?  Have civil society organisations been consulted?  Outcome: Assessment of whether donors are imposing policies that are outside Vietnam’s existing plans

5. Step 4: Assessing Technical Assistance (TA)  How much of Vietnam’s aid is in the form of TA? According to the Vietnam Development Assistance Database (DAD), about 12% of aid is free standing TA, and a further 35% has some TA component  Have either the government or the donors done an assessment of the effectiveness of TA?  How much of this money is spent on international consultants? What is the average cost of consultants?  How does spending on TA relate to Vietnam’s education budget and civil service wage bill?  Outcome: Review of existing data and literature on the effectiveness of TA

6. Step 5: Tied Aid  How much of Vietnam’s aid is tied to goods and services from the donor country? According to official estimates, about 40% of Vietnam’s aid is tied  Which donors tie aid? The OECD-DAC provides this information at a global level  What is the cost to Vietnam of tied aid? Tying usually worsens value for money by between 15 and 40%  Outcome: Assessment of how much of a problem tied aid is in Vietnam, and which are the worst donors

7. Step 6: Implementing the Paris and Hanoi Declarations  The Paris Declaration includes a set of targets for donors and recipient governments for improving aid effectiveness  Donors and governments have localised these in Vietnam through the ‘Hanoi Core Statement’  Are donors and government on track to meet the targets? The OECD-DAC has produced some information on country by country performance in implementing the Paris Declaration  Which donors are on track in Vietnam? Which are off track?  Are donors doing better or worse in Vietnam than in other countries?  Outcome: An assessment of whether donors and government are on track to meet the Hanoi and Paris targets on aid effectiveness, and how they compare to donors in other countries

8. Some sources of Information  Vietnam Development Assistance Database (DAD) Comprehensive source of data on aid to Vietnam Available at http://dad.mpi.gov.ukhttp://dad.mpi.gov.uk  Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD Publishes data on implementing of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness Vietnam chapter can be found here http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/35/38745120.pd f http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/35/38745120.pd f Other data on implementation of the Paris Declaration is at http://www.oecd.org/document/52/0,3343,en_264 9_33721_38542068_1_1_1_1,00.html http://www.oecd.org/document/52/0,3343,en_264 9_33721_38542068_1_1_1_1,00.html