• Ensure that harmonization efforts are adapted to the
country context and that donor assistance is aligned
with the recipients’ priorities.
• Expand country-led efforts to streamline donor procedures and practices.
• Review and identify ways to adapt the policies, procedures, and practices of institutions and countries in order to facilitate harmonization.
• Implement the principles and standards of good practice that were formulated by the development community as the foundation for harmonization.
The Paris Declaration: Joint Progress toward
Enhanced Aid Effectiveness
The Paris High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was
held in 2005. Here, more than 100 signatories, representing
partner governments, bilateral and multilateral donors, regional development banks, and international agencies, endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (the Paris
Declaration). Signatories committed to specific actions that
would promote the effective use of aid funds.3
The Paris Declaration grew out of a consensus on
the necessity for “country ownership” of development
efforts.4 Several decades of experience led the international
community to the realization that development depends
primarily on efforts at the country level and that aid
needs to focus on facilitating these efforts—not on trying to
replace them. Developing countries themselves must “own”
their development. The Paris Declaration commits donor
and recipient governments to enhance accountability to
each other and to their citizens for development policies,
strategies, and performance.
There are five principles of effective aid in the Paris
Declaration:
1. Ownership—developing countries exercise effective leadership in their development policies and strategies and
as coordinators of their development activities.
2. Alignment—donors commit to basing their overall support on recipient countries’ national development strategies, institutions, and procedures.
3. Harmonization—donor countries work cooperatively so
that their actions are more harmonized, transparent,
and collectively effective. They reduce transaction costs
for local partners, freeing them to focus their attention
on strategic concerns rather than on the details of project management.
4. Managing for Results—developing countries and donors
shift their focus to development results, and these results are measured.
5. Mutual Accountability—donors and partners are accountable for development results—actual improvements in
the lives of poor people.
Beyond identifying principles for effective aid, the Paris
Declaration laid out a plan of action to improve the quality of
aid and its impact on development. It put in place a series of
implementation measures; it also established a monitoring
system to assess progress and ensure that donors and recipient governments are increasing their levels of transparency
and accountability. Based on the five principles, 12 indicators of aid effectiveness were selected. For each, a global-level
2005 baseline was calculated and a target 2010 value identified. [For the 12 Paris Indicators, see appendix].
The Paris Declaration’s emphasis on monitoring and
Figure 1 Paris Declaration Principles
MANAGING FOR RESULTS
ALIGNMENT
Donors-partners
3
HARMONISATION
Donors-donors
PARTNERS
SET THE AGENDA
ALIGNING
WITH PARTNERS
AGENDA
ESTABLISHING
COMMON
ARRANGEMENTS
USING
PARTNERS’
SYSTEMS
SIMPLIFYING
PROCEDURES
SHARING
INFORMATION
MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
OWNERSHIP
Partner countries
2
5
1
4
Source: OECD.
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