The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) and the 2006 and 2008 Surveys on Monitoring the Paris Declaration all clearly recognised the vital role that parliaments play in enhancing the effectiveness of aid, and in achieving progress towards the targets set in the Paris Declaration. However, it was recognised that parliamentarians had not been thus far systematically sensitized or engaged in the monitoring or evaluation processes.

The programme, Engaging Parliamentarians in the Aid Effectiveness Debate, was created to deepen the engagement of parliamentarians in the debate on aid effectiveness and to keep them adequately informed on such developments. A secondary development of this programme was to galvanise political support for the recommendations laid out in the Paris Agenda and the AAA, and spur reform and advocacy within parliaments to fulfil these recommendations.

The formation of a parliamentary handbook on aid effectiveness was an integral part of bridging this development. Mokoro Principal Consultant, Alta Fölscher, undertook the preparation of the handbook which was distributed widely to parliamentary partners throughout Africa.