Human rights, democracy, civic equality and reduction in armed conflict are all factors of effective government.

Transparency and Accountability:

Transparency and accountability about resources and results are essential elements in the fight against poverty. In their absence, it's impossible to know whether health, education, and other services are being delivered efficiently and effectively; whether development objectives are being met; and civil society will not have the tools necessary to track public spending and hold governments to account.

Too often, precious development dollars (either aid or domestic resources) are lost due to corruption, inefficiency, and mismanagement. Donor countries must not only provide mechanisms for accountability to their own taxpayers, but must also work with partner governments to provide better accountability to citizens in developing countries who are recipients of aid and the true drivers of development.

Emerging economies are increasing their investment in developing countries. South-south partnerships are redefining the development agenda. Citizens across the world are demanding more transparent, accountable and responsive governance. And meanwhile, many developing countries are still struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In this context, issues of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability for development resources are more important than ever.

Some countries rely on aid for more than 30% of their government expenditures, and in addition to playing a crucial role in the delivery of essential services and the provision of humanitarian relief, aid can play an important catalytic role, helping to leverage other resources for development (including domestic resource mobilization, private investment, private philanthropy, and innovative finance), ensuring that they are spent effectively, and ultimately contributing to countries' making progress on development outcomes. While it is crucial that aid dependency must be reduced over time and replaced with more sustainable financing, it is imperative that current aid levels and aid effectiveness commitments are maintained and better coordinated with other financing and development policies to spur results.