Nearly half of Bangladesh's population lives below the poverty line. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has prepared I-PRSP (viz. The National Strategy for Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction and Social Development) and the full PRS is scheduled to be available by December 2004. The PRS is built around four pillars: broad-based economic growth, social sector development, social inclusion and good governance. These are rooted in the PRS’ explicit emphasis on decentralization and rationalization of government functions and transparency. In mid-2005, GoB is scheduled to complete its MDG Progress Report.

In 2003, a new Procurement Regulation was introduced which takes into account the harmonization efforts of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and their minimum requirements for local procurement. The regulation is applicable for all entities using public resources for procurement. MDBs and bilateral donors are encouraged to use the Government’s new regulations.

In the area of financial management and accountability, reforms are also being pursued in budget and expenditure control and government audit. Progress has also been achieved in the area of capacity enhancement and technical assistance. Namely donors have agreed on guidelines for donor funded foreign training activities.

The Task Force on Public Financial management is the core joint team of donors and GoB to steer harmonization issues.

The Government recognizes primary school education as a key area for development and as a means to reducing poverty. Donor harmonization efforts are currently focused on the education sector. One of the key lessons learned has been the poor coordination between Government and [among] donors and the difficulties encountered during implementation of over 20 generally poorly performing, weakly managed, low disbursing and overlapping donor-financed projects. The project by project approach to improving primary education has also had a negative impact on capacity building and human resource development in the sector.

AsDB is the lead agency among eleven development partners, to coordinate the financial and program support from EC, IDA, JICA, UNICEF and six bilateral donors (AusAID, CIDA, DFID, Netherlands, NORAD and SIDA).

Harmonization activities envisaged include: Pool account, procedures for pool-funded procurement, performance-based financing, joint implementation and supervision activities, and common audit and reporting requirements.

Harmonization features of EC support to Bangladesh are in the education as well as in the health sectors in the form of pool funding.

The Government in consultation with major donors has prepared a draft Harmonization Action Plan (HAP) which is likely to be finalized and adopted (after formal endorsement through dialogue with all development partners and stakeholders) by the end of April 2005.

GoB was represented at the AsDB and the Government of Japan sponsored East and South Asia, and the Pacific Regional Workshop on Harmonization and Alignment for Development Effectiveness and Managing for Results which was hosted by the Government of Thailand in Bangkok on October 19-20, 2004. The workshop prepared participants for the Second High-Level Forum (HLF-2) on Harmonization and Alignment in Paris, Feb. 28-March 2, 2005.

OECD/DAC Working Party has developed indicators (in a survey instrument) to monitor progress on harmonization and alignment. These indicators were field-tested in 14 countries, including Bangladesh. A draft report has been prepared.

Bangladesh is a planned Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) Pilot

In 2002 Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan were invited to participate in the Education for All - Analytic Fast Track (EFA-AFT) initiative. However, EFA-AFT no longer exists since the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) has evolved from a vertical program and global fund – where participation was on an invitation basis only - to a country-based and country-led process of program development and resource mobilization, with the global partnership providing tools and resources to support, fill gaps and leverage longer term financing. To this end, the FTI partnership has opened up participation to all IDA-eligible countries responding to the EFA-FTI criteria of a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and an education sector plan prioritizing Universal Primary School Completion (UPC) and endorsed by the local donor group. Bangladesh is likely to be endorsed through EFA-FTI review process in 2005.

The Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) was launched in April 2002 as a global partnership between donor and developing countries to ensure accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015. It was endorsed two months later by the G-8. The objectives and strategies are described in the EFA-FTI Framework document, adopted by the donor partners in March 2004.

In June 2002, eighteen countries were invited to prepare proposals for FTI financing. Five other countries (Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan) were invited to participate in an “Analytical Fast Track” (EFA-AFT). Operational guidelines for AFT and for access to resources were under the FTI Analytical and Capacity Building Trust Fund.

EFA-FTI has evolved from a vertical program and global fund – where participation was on an invitation basis only - to a country-based and country-led process of program development and resource mobilization, with the global partnership providing tools and resources to support, fill gaps and leverage longer term financing. To this end, the FTI partnership has:

• Opened up participation to all IDA-eligible countries responding to the EFA-FTI criteria of a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and an education sector plan prioritizing Universal Primary School Completion (UPC) and endorsed by the local donor group (EFA-FTI Partnership Meeting in Oslo, November 2003);
• Clarified expectations of the local endorsement process whereby the endorsement process is conducted by the local donor group. The endorsement brings a collective responsibility to mobilize financing, and a collective responsibility that whether donors channel their funds through project or budget support, it should be within country priorities as established in their sector plans and accounted for in national budgets;
• Launched and operationalized the Catalytic Fund (CF) in November-December 2003 to provide transitional grant financing over a limited period of time (a maximum of two to three years) to countries to (1) help finance endorsed sector plans that mobilize insufficient resources due to an inadequate number of donors and (2) scale up implementation and establish a track record that may leverage more sustainable support through regular bilateral and multilateral channels. Current donors supporting the Catalytic Fund include: Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Pledges to the CF reached about $300 million for 2004-2007. Six countries (The Gambia, Guyana, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Niger and Yemen) have received CF grants for 2004. Ghana and these six countries will receive CF financing in 2005.
• Launched the Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) in November 2004. The EPDF, a multi-donor trust fund, was put in place to enable more low-income countries to access the FTI and accelerate progress towards universal primary education. As of January 2005, the EPDF has two donors (the United Kingdom and Norway) that have pledged a total $6 million for 2005. Pledges are expected from other donors in the near future. Norway is also contributing $10 million for 2005 into a trust fund for only African countries through the Norwegian Education Trust Fund (NETF). Ultimately, there is a plan to merge these two funds.

The Analytical Fast Track no longer exists and the five countries initially invited to participate are now EFA-FTI potential countries. In mid-April 2005, thirteen countries have received endorsement through the EFA-FTI review process. Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Mauritania, Nicaragua and Niger were the first seven countries to be endorsed in 2002. The Gambia, Mozambique, Vietnam and Republic of Yemen were accepted in 2003 while Ghana and Ethiopia joined EFA-FTI in 2004.

There are three EFA-FTI Working Groups as follows: (i) The Harmonization Working Group became operational in March 2004 and has grown from 10 members to more than 20 members. The membership includes the following bilateral or multilateral agencies – Belgium, Canada, EC, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UNESCO, the World Bank – and the FTI Secretariat. The Harmonization Working Group has developed and tested a tool – the Donor Indicative Framework (DIF) – that enables countries and donors to assess their progress on harmonization.

(ii) The Finance Working Group, led by DFID, monitors donor support. It has undertaken four studies whose draft reports were presented at the FTI Partnership meeting in Brasilia, November 10-12, 2004.

(iii) The Communications Working Group is headed by UNICEF and is charged with defining a communications strategy, including key messages customized to various audiences (e.g. donor agencies, partner governments, NGOs). A communication strategy was discussed with the FTI Partnership at the annual meeting in November.

The FTI Secretariat is based at the World Bank (WB) in Washington, DC and is comprised of staff from donor partner agencies and from the WB. It is managed by the WB under the direction of the FTI Steering Committee (present five members are the current co-chairs - Sweden, UK; UNESCO, WB; and the most recent out-going co-chair – USA).

Canada is the EFA-FTI lead donor for Burkina Faso.

The country has successfully mobilized the financing required through direct donor support.

In July 2005, Burkina Faso's Threshold Country Plan was the first one to be approved by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for its innovative program to increase primary education completion rates for girls. As a result, this program will receive $12.9 million and together with EFA-FTI, Burkina Faso now has a better chance of accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015