TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Delegates from partner countries, donor nations and multilateral agencies today ratified their commitment to collaborate on an “action agenda” aimed at making development assistance more effective.
Participants of the November 8-10 Regional Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean on Harmonization, Alignment and Results analyzed lessons learned and best practices derived from various experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean to achieve greater impacts in economic and social development projects.
Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and the Inter-American Development Bank’s executive vice president, Dennis Flannery, opened the meeting organized by the IDB, which brought together high-level delegates such as the director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Development Cooperation Directorate, Michael Roeskau.
As in similar events held in Africa and Asia, during the Tegucigalpa workshop participants identified effective methods to reduce transaction costs of development assistance and the administrative burdens it imposes on partner countries.
During the meeting’s sessions delegates discussed cases from Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua on harmonization of procedures among donor nations and multilateral agencies as well as alignment with the policies of partner countries. They also reviewed experiences from Chile, Bolivia, El Salvador and Peru on managing for development results.
Participants agreed to disseminate and accelerate the implementation of approaches to increase aid effectiveness through improvements in public finances management and public sector procurement, collaboration on country and sector programming and analysis, and cooperation among donors in sectors and projects.
The delegates also offered commentaries and suggestions to the Reference Framework for a Declaration and Action Agenda, an OECD document that will serve as a platform for discussion at the Second High-Level Forum on Harmonization, which will take place in Paris in March 2005.
The conclusions of the Tegucigalpa workshop will be added to a regional report that will include reports from regional workshops held in Africa and Asia.