Regional Workshops:
Regional Workshop On Harmonization And Alignment
(Bangkok, Thailand - October 19 - 20, 2004)

Sponsors: Government of Thailand, the Asian Development Bank and Government of Japan

Overview of the Workshop: The Regional Workshop held in Bangkok, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and Government of Japan, and hosted by the Government of Thailand, was attended by 119 participants from partner countries, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and civil society. Countries invited included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam.

The workshop provided a forum in which participants exchanged ideas and considered different approaches and solutions to the challenges of increasing aid effectiveness through harmonization, alignment and results, and further discussed progress achieved in the above areas, since Rome. Case studies presented included country cases on capacity building in Vietnam, managing for results in Nepal, Harmonization and Alignment of business processes in the Philippines, sector approaches in the Education sector in Bangladesh, the Education and Health sectors in Cambodia; and Harmonization and Alignment in the context of post conflict countries like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Additional presentations were also provided on a sector and project perspective of managing for results in: a) rationalization and corporate governance of Specialized Financial Institutions perspectives in Thailand; and b) a Monitoring and Evaluation system for a national provincial level HIV/AIDs program in Vietnam.

The workshop, was well received by partner government officials, and deepened the involvement of partner countries' officials in the international harmonization process. The use of cases drawn from the Region rendered the discussions meaningful and relevant to ground-level concerns. It also provided a good example of how the "tripartite partnership"-bilaterals, multilateral, and partner countries-was engaged in focusing attention on the global aid effectiveness agenda, while simultaneously strengthening that architecture through improved aid coordination, results-focus, and capacity development at partner country level.

Recommendations to the HLF-2 event included increased recognition to sector approaches as an instrument to promote alignment, the need to ensure strengthening of capacity to achieve alignment, the importance of engaging in a more in depth discussion on issues of capacity building, and ensuring that institutional reform accompany capacity building efforts in order to achieve results in the region.