The Fourth High Level Conference on Aid Effectiveness will take place in Busan, South Korea, from November 29 – December 1. The event will bring together policymakers, parliamentarians, civil society organisations and private sector representatives from around the globe to review global progress in improving the impact of development aid.

So load up your e-reader or laptop (or give the printer a workout — double-sided of course) with some of these reads on aid effectiveness to prepare for the conference, whether you’ll be attending in person or keeping an eye on the proceedings from home.

The following reading list has been supplied by Alan Hudson, the senior policy manager for governance (transparency and accountability) at ONE.  He has also shared the list on his blog.

Essential reading

1. ONE’s policy pitch — From aid effectiveness to development effectiveness: delivering results through transparency and accountability. (Also read their Busan briefing page). ONE’s policy document outlines the urgent issues that donors need to address at Busan, including transparency, accountability and developing new frameworks of aid effectiveness.

2. The UK Aid Network’s HLF-IV update (October). This concise summary outlines donor ambitions ahead of Busan and DFID’s stance.

3. 3rd Draft of the Busan Outcome Document [pdf]. Essential reading to see what goals and outcomes donors will actually be working towards at HLF4.

4. Reports from meetings in the Overseas Development Institute series in the lead-up to Busan.

• ‘Who should lead the aid effectiveness debate in the future?’  — a paper by Jonathan Glennie examining what the role of DAC should be in the increasingly complex aid field.
• The results agenda and competing accountabilities. A summary of a panel discussion on results, measurement and accountability in the aid process.
• The report from ‘A new aid deal for fragile states?’, a debate by experts on aid delivery in countries such as Timor Leste and representatives from international organisations on what needs to be done to address the unique challenges faced by post-conflict and fragile states at Busan.
• Tony’s Blair’s ‘Rethinking leadership for development’ presentation. Mr Blair outlines what he believes to be the four central issues in the aid effectiveness debate.

5. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation report to the G-20 ‘Innovation with Impact: Financing 21^st century development’. This report outlines alternate means for financing development in the post-GFC world.

6. The Addis Ababa statement on development effectiveness [pdf]. This document outlines the key priorities for African nations going into Busan and the stance they will take as a group at the forum.

7. Commonwealth Finance Ministers Statement [pdf]. The statement, from a September meeting of the ministers, outlines their agreed key areas of concern for Busan. These concerns include mutual accountability, transparency, risk management, climate finance and non-DAC actors.

8. UK Aid Network – Shaping the future of aid [pdf]. This paper outlines the joint UK NGO vision for the Busan talks.

Other useful reading

9. The Tunis consensus on development effectiveness [pdf]. The Tunis consensus outlines an African vision for development agreed upon at a meeting of leaders in November 2010.

10. David Booth – Aid effectiveness: Bringing country ownership and politics back in [pdf]. This paper argues for a refocusing of the Busan agenda on country ownership of development, arguing that ownership should be seen as a desirable outcome rather than an achieved state of affairs.

11. Jonathan Glennie and Andrew Rogerson – ‘Global reach is the prize for Busan’ [pdf]. Glennie and Rogerson argue that the main goal at Busan should be for agreement on a few core standards that will apply to all donors, whether they are DAC or non-DAC.

12. CABRI position paper on aid transparency. This position paper focuses on Africa, arguing that transparency is the key for achieving improvement and sustainability in development results.

13. ‘The road to Busan: Pursuing a new consensus on development cooperation’ [pdf]. Brian Atwood, chair of OECD-DAC, argues that global aid architecture needs to change to recognise new donors. (Also see this Q&A with Atwood.)

Devpolicy picks

In addition to Alan’s compilation above, the Devpolicy team has some recommendations.

14. AusAID ODE brief — ‘Getting practical about mutual accountability’ [pdf]. This brief looks at how mutual accountability has fallen off the international aid agenda and provides an example of how it works in practice in the Australian aid program.

15. ODE’s interview with Bernard Wood, lead author of the OECD-DAC Paris Declaration evaluation, looks at what impact the declaration has had on aid results on the ground.

16. Niloofar Rafiei’s blog post for Devpolicy on the Paris Declaration evaluation looks at the disappointing progress on issues such reducing transaction costs and harmonization.

17. UN Women’s knowledge briefs on gender equality and aid effectiveness. This series of briefs touches on gender budgeting, gender equality in the aid effectiveness agenda and the relationship between development cooperation and gender.

18. ‘On aid and growth — reflections ahead of Busan‘. Finn Tarp from the World Bank’s Development Talk blog looks at the relationship between aid and economic growth.

19. Transparency could be the sticking point for China at Busan. Mark Tran blogs on how Beijing’s rejection of aid transparency could be one of the biggest obstacles at HLF4.

20. In Devpolicy’s ‘Beyond Paris: 11 innovations in aid effectiveness‘ discussion paper, Matt Morris and Jonathan Pryke examine recent alternatives to the Paris agenda.

21. An addition from commenter Pauline below, seconded by Brendan Rigby on Twitter — UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report has produced a policy brief on how aid effectiveness impacts on education. ‘Beyond Busan: strengthening aid to improve education outcomes‘ [pdf].

What would you add to this list?  Let us know in the comments.