Experiences in Southern Sudan may shed new light on the continuing aid effectiveness debate. Between 2005 and 2009, the then Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) recorded some significant successes in this area, establishing a government-led approach to aid coordination. It did so by developing its Aid Strategy shortly after the end of the country’s civil war. It also aligned coordination structures to its own capacity.

This Background Note from ODI’s Budget Strengthening Initiative reviews the background to aid effectiveness in Southern Sudan. It goes on to assess the performance of GoSS’s Aid Strategy against its six core principles: alignment, coordination, predictability, harmonisation, institutional development and mutual accountability. It argues that the coordination of aid with the budget planning process led to a rapid improvement in reporting on aid projections, but lack of information on expenditure limited discussions on aid effectiveness.