Yash Tandon, writing in Business Daily Africa says that that the Paris Declaration on aid is a form of collective colonialism by donors:

under the pretext of making aid more effective the Paris Declaration project is a form of collective colonialism by Northern “donors” of those countries in the South that (because of their weakness and vulnerability and psychology of “dependency”) may allow themselves to be subjected to it at the Accra September Conference.

This is massively overstated, but there is a kernel of truth here. Donors have the money, the choice and the power, and however progressive individual officials want to be, that power relationship is translated into institutional mechanisms such as the Paris Declaration.

That said, the Paris Declaration is the best opportunity for a generation to change that power relationship, by committing the donors to improving their behaviour as donors, including several measures which could, over time, rebalance the power.

I will be at the Accra September Conference and will report on whether we make progress.