Rome Declaration on Harmonization
Rome, Italy, February 25, 2003
| 1. We, the heads of multilateral and bilateral development
institutions and representatives of the IMF, other multilateral financial
institutions, and partner countries gathered in Rome, Italy, on February
24-25, 2003, reaffirm our commitment to eradicating poverty, achieving sustained
economic growth, and promoting sustainable development as we advance to
an inclusive and equitable global economic system. Our deliberations are
an important international effort to harmonize the operational policies,
procedures, and practices of our institutions with those of partner country
systems to improve the effectiveness of development assistance, and thereby
contribute to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They directly
support the broad agreement of the international development community on
this issue as reflected in the Monterrey Consensus (Report of the International
Conference on Financing for Development, March 2002, para. 43). We express
our appreciation to the governments of Jamaica, Vietnam, and Ethiopia, and
to the bilateral donors and international institutions that sponsored and
coordinated regional workshops in Kingston, Hanoi, and Addis Ababa in January
2003, in preparation for the Rome Forum. The key principles, lessons, and
messages synthesized in the reports of these workshops have provided valuable
input to the Forum. |
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Improvements in Development Effectiveness
2. We in the donor community have been concerned with the growing evidence
that, over time, the totality and wide variety of donor requirements and processes
for preparing, delivering, and monitoring development assistance are generating
unproductive transaction costs for, and drawing down the limited capacity
of, partner countries. We are also aware of partner country concerns that
donors' practices do not always fit well with national development priorities
and systems, including their budget, program, and project planning cycles
and public expenditure and financial management systems. We recognize that
these issues require urgent, coordinated, and sustained action to improve
our effectiveness on the ground.
3. We attach high importance to partner countries' assuming a stronger leadership
role in the coordination of development assistance, and to assisting in building
their capacity to do so. Partner countries on their part will undertake necessary
reforms to enable progressive reliance by donors on their systems as they
adopt international principles or standards and apply good practices. The
key element that will guide this work is a country-based approach that emphasizes
country ownership and government leadership, includes capacity building, recognizes
diverse aid modalities (projects, sector approaches, and budget or balance
of payments support), and engages civil society including the private sector.
Good Practice Standards or Principles
4. We acknowledge that while our historical origins, institutional mandates,
governance structures, and authorizing environments vary, in many instances
we can simplify and harmonize our requirements and reduce their associated
costs, while improving fiduciary oversight and public accountability and enhancing
the focus on concrete development results. We endorse the good practice work
by the technical groups of the DAC/OECD Task Force and the multilateral development
banks (MDBs), and look forward to the expected completion next year of the
UN harmonization work that is being coordinated by UNDG. We are ready to follow
existing good practices while continuing to identify and disseminate new ones.
Going Forward
5. We agree that, for both donors and partner countries, the progress we
make on the ground in programs and projects will be a concrete and important
measure of the success of our efforts. We recognize that such progress can
be facilitated and enhanced by harmonization efforts at the international
and regional levels. Building on the work of the DAC/OECD and MDB working
groups and on country experience, including the recent country initiatives,
we commit to the following activities to enhance harmonization:
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Ensuring
that development assistance is delivered in accordance with partner country
priorities, including poverty reduction strategies and similar approaches,
and that harmonization efforts are adapted to the country context.
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Reviewing
and identifying ways to amend, as appropriate, our individual institutions'
and countries' policies, procedures, and practices to facilitate harmonization.
In addition, we will work to reduce donor missions, reviews, and reporting,
streamline conditionalities, and simplify and harmonize documentation.
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Implementing
progressively - building on experiences so far and the messages from the regional
workshops - the good practice standards or principles in development assistance
delivery and management, taking into account specific country circumstances.
We will disseminate the good practices (synthesized in Annex A) to our managers
and staff at headquarters and in country offices and to other in-country
development partners.
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Intensifying
donor efforts to work through delegated cooperation at the country level
and increasing the flexibility of country-based staff to manage country
programs and projects more effectively and efficiently.
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Developing,
at all levels within our organizations, incentives that foster management
and staff recognition of the benefits of harmonization in the interest of
increased aid effectiveness.
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Providing
support for country analytic work in ways that will strengthen governments'
ability to assume a greater leadership role and take ownership of development
results. In particular, we will work with partner governments to forge stronger
partnerships and will collaborate to improve the policy relevance, quality,
delivery, and efficiency of country analytic work.
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Expanding
or mainstreaming country-led efforts (whether begun in particular sectors,
thematic areas, or individual projects) to streamline donor procedures and
practices, including enhancing demand-driven technical cooperation. The
list of countries presently involved includes Ethiopia, Jamaica, Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Honduras, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco,
Niger, Nicaragua, Pacific Islands, Philippines, Senegal, and Zambia.
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Providing
budget, sector, or balance of payments support where it is consistent with
the mandate of the donor, and when appropriate policy and fiduciary arrangements
are in place. Good practice principles or standards - including alignment
with national budget cycles and national poverty reduction strategy reviews - should
be used in delivering such assistance.
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Promoting
harmonized approaches in global and regional programs.
6. We wish to record that a positive by-product of our collaboration on harmonization
has been increased information sharing and improved understanding of commonalities
and differences during the preparation or revision of our respective operational
policies, procedures, and practices. We will deepen this collaboration in
the future, and will explore how such collaboration could help to ensure that
new or revised policies are appropriately harmonized or "harmonizable" with
those of the partner countries and donor institutions.
7. We recognize the global work on monitoring and assessing the contribution
of donor support to the achievement of the MDGs. We will track and, as necessary,
refine lead indicators of progress on harmonization such as those described
in the DAC/OECD Good Practice Papers.
8. We acknowledge the potential contribution of modern information and communication
technologies to promoting and facilitating harmonization - already demonstrated
by the use of audio and videoconferencing facilities in the staff work on
harmonization, the Development Gateway, the Country Analytic Work website,
and the early work on e-government, eprocurement, and e-financial management.
We commit to further efforts to exploit these technologies.
Next Steps
9. Partner countries are encouraged to design country-based action plans
for harmonization, agreed with the donor community, that will set out clear
and monitorable proposals to harmonize development assistance using the proposals
of the DAC/OECD Task Force and the MDB technical working groups as reference
points. In turn, the bilateral and multilateral agencies will take actions
to support harmonization at the country level. As part of their self-evaluation
processes, bilateral and multilateral agencies and partner countries will
assess and report on progress in applying good practices, and on the impact
of such practices. Whenever possible, we will use existing mechanisms to develop
such plans and to assess and report on progress, and we will make these plans
available to the public.
10. We will utilize and strengthen, including through partner country participation,
existing mechanisms to maintain peer pressure for implementing our agreements
on harmonization. In this regard and in the context of the New Partnership
for Africa's Development, we welcome regional initiatives, such as the work
by the Economic Commission for Africa, for a joint annual aid effectiveness
review in a framework of mutual accountability that would also address harmonization
issues.
11. Reflecting our experience over these last two days, we plan stocktaking
meetings in early 2005 following the review already scheduled in DAC/OECD
in 2004. This follow-up would assess progress in and sustain the momentum
for fundamental changes that enhance aid delivery, and would contribute to
the review of the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, the timing and
modalities for which are expected to be determined by 2005.
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