Regional Workshops:
LAC Regional Workshop on Harmonization, Alignment and Results
(Tegucigalpa, Honduras - November 8 - 10, 2004)

Sponsors: Government of Honduras, Inter American Development Bank

Overview of the Workshop: The LAC Regional Workshop on Harmonization, Alignment and Results held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, sponsored by the Inter American Development Bank, and hosted by the Government of Honduras, engaged a total of 224 participants from member countries, bilateral and multilateral organizations. Member countries included: Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Peru. The opening presentation of the workshop was presented by the Ministry of Finance from Chile where the budget experience of Chile, the feedback mechanism of building the evaluation function into the decision making processes of the Chilean Parliament were described at length.

Subsequent sessions on the following days included country case presentations on harmonization and alignment, namely Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Jamaica. Results cases were presented on Peru Roads, Public Financial Management and Fiscal environment of Peru, and Managing for Results in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. Additional sessions on financial management, procurement, SWAps, and country analytical work were held. Brief presentations were also made on the Joint Country Learning Assessment experience of Nicaragua, donor perspectives on harmonization and alignment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan, and by the Minister of Finance, Government of Honduras.

Summary workshop conclusions included the recognition of progress made in the region on harmonization, alignment, and results in the areas of financial management, procurement, sector wide approaches, joint sector and programmatic activities by donors and partner country, the diversity of experiences in the middle income and low income country context, the presence of a vast amount of engagement in H&A in countries which did not have Harmonization Action Plans, the strength of harmonization and alignment experiences in the region that predated Rome and Monterey, and the need for enhanced communication on lessons and good practice in harmonization, alignment and results. Several participants stress the need for alignment of ODA financed international NGO work to the national strategies. Participants also recognized the difficulties of achieving results in the region in the face of fiscally difficult environments. Recommendations to the HLF-2 included the need for encouraging alignment to country "owned" strategies, recognition of the diversity of partner country's institutional and political climates, implementing joint evaluations of aid agencies, engaging in more joint activities, linking to the original framework for harmonization and alignment, ensuring policy coherence, and strengthening results oriented frameworks of nationally "owned" strategies.