Aid Effectiveness Network news
Joint strategy partners achieve another milestone
The DFID-World Bank-Asia Development Bank-Japan Joint Strategy for Poverty
Reduction in Bangladesh achieved yet another milestone towards harmonisation by
inviting the wider donor community to join.
Background
In response to the Government’s well-orchestrated preparation process for a
high quality Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Bangladesh - DFID, the
World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Government of Japan, Bangladesh’s major development partners (accounting for over 80%
of development assistance) joined the orchestra to harmonise their support for
the PRSP. They agreed partnership principles
(92
kb) for joint working and in the interest of transparency and to keep the wider
development community on board with progress issued
a newsletter(190
kb).
Joint Strategy Milestones
The partners identified a set of core outcomes as the basis for their joint
support (outcome matrix(129
kb)). Wide stakeholder consultation followed (schedule
of stake holder consultations(8
kb)). The reaction from stakeholders was generally positive.
Government was initially worried about the four ‘big ones ganging up on conditionality’, but is now strongly in favour as the partnership is supportive of its harmonisation action plan. The wider donor community would ideally have liked a more inclusive process but the four partners were initially concerned to keep the venture manageable.
The partners then agreed policy notes in outcome areas of the matrix where
there was some ‘crowding’ by the four. The notes were to provide policy guidance
and facilitate the harmonisation process (example
policy note(66
kb)). The outcome matrix together with the policy notes form the basis of the
country strategy for each partner.
ADB and the Government of Japan have had their country strategies approved. The World Bank Country Assistance Strategy will go to the board in March and the DFID Country Assistance Plan is also heading for a March/April deadline. Why four separate country strategy documents and not a common one? The answer lies beyond the country level. Each partner has specific requirements and formats for country strategies that could not be waived.
To take harmonisation further the four partners have agreed division of
labour, each leading in areas of their relative advantage (matrix
of lead areas(17
kb)) with agreed Terms of Reference(13
kb) for the ‘lead’ role. Performance review of the joint support will be through
the same monitoring and evaluation mechanism as for the PRSP, now being
developed by the joint Government of Bangladesh/donor task force set up by Government.
Latest Milestone
With these basic foundations in place for a harmonised support by the four partners for the Government led PRSP, the outcome matrix was shared with the wider donor community on 22 February 2006, inviting them to join the process.
