Survey on Harmonisation and Alignment of Donor Practices

Is the donor community providing effective aid? In February 2003, donors made a firm commitment to improve aid effectiveness at the Rome High Level Forum on Harmonisation. Where do they stand two years later? This report describes the progress achieved to date in implementing the donor community’s commitments. It has been prepared as a contribution to the Paris High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (28 February -2 March 2005).To measure aid effectiveness, 14 countries participated in a ground-breaking survey in 2004 that measured aid harmonisation and alignment. Herein lie the results. Generally encouraging, the results show that developing countries and donors are indeed working together to improve co-ordination and aid effectiveness. Increased efforts are needed, however. What will donors and the developing countries need to do to strengthen alignment and harmonisation? This volume provides a snapshot of the state of affairs in 14 developing countries and highlights a number of suggestions for carrying the Rome Agenda forward.