DAC Guidelines and Reference Series - OECD.org

1 ISBN 92-64-19982-943 2003 02 1 PThe international community is committed to helping partner countries meet the MillenniumDevelopment Goal of halving global poverty by 2015. Effective use of scarce officialdevelopment assistance is one important contribution to this end. This is why thedevelopment community, under the auspices of the OECD Development AssistanceCommittee (DAC), is dedicated to implementing improvements in aid practices that delivermore effective and harmonised support to the efforts of partner countries.

2 The goodpractices presented here have been designed to respond to this concern. They represent aset of practical steps that if applied by development agencies should significantlyimprove the effectiveness of development assistance, while maintaining the samestandards of Guidelines and Reference SeriesHarmonising Donor Practices for Effective Aid Delivery-:HSTCQE=V^^]W] s books, periodicals and statistical databases are now available via , our online book is available to subscribers to the following SourceOECD theme.

3 DevelopmentAsk your librarian for more details on how to access OECD books on line, or write to us DAC Guidelines and Reference SeriesHarmonising DonorPractices for EffectiveAid DeliveryDAC Guidelines and Reference SeriesHarmonising Donor Practices for Effective Aid Delivery OECD, 2003. Software: 1987-1996, Acrobat is a trademark of rights reserved. OECD grants you the right to use one copy of this Program for your personal use only. Unauthorised reproduction,lending, hiring, transmission or distribution of any data or software is prohibited.

4 You must treat the Program and associated materialsand any elements thereof like any other copyrighted requests should be made to:Head of Publications Service,OECD Publications Service,2, rue Andr -Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENTDAC Guidelines and Reference SeriesHarmonisingDonor Practicesfor Effective Aid DeliveryGood Practice PapersA DAC Reference DocumentORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENTP ursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came intoforce on 30th September 1961.

5 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)shall promote policies designed: to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard ofliving in member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to thedevelopment of the world economy; to contribute to sound economic expansion in member as well as non-member countries in theprocess of economic development; and to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis inaccordance with international original member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

6 The following countriesbecame members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan(28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973),Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland(22nd November 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). TheCommission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECDC onvention).

7 In order to achieve its aims the OECD has set up a number of specialised committees. One of these is theDevelopment Assistance Committee, whose members have agreed to secure an expansion of aggregate volume ofresources made available to developing countries and to improve their effectiveness. To this end, membersperiodically review together both the amount and the nature of their contributions to aid programmes, bilateral andmultilateral, and consult each other on all other relevant aspects of their development assistance members of the Development Assistance Committee are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

8 The United Kingdom, the United States and the Commission of the en fran ais sous le titre :Harmoniser l aide pour renforcer son efficacit OECD 2003 Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained through the Centre fran ais d exploitationdu droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France, tel. (33-1) 44 07 47 70, fax (33-1) 46 34 67 19, for every country except the UnitedStates. In the United States permission should be obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center, Customer Service, (508)750-8400, 222 Rosewood Drive,Danvers, MA 01923 USA, or CCC Online.

9 All other applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should bemade to OECD Publications, 2, rue Andr -Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, DONOR PRACTICES FOR EFFECTIVE AID DELIVERY ISBN 92-64-19982-9 OECD 20033 PREFACEP refaceThe Monterrey conference highlighted the importance of building partnerships among donorsand developing countries as a means of making more effective progress towards the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. It specifically called on development co-operation agencies to intensify theirefforts to:Harmonise their operational procedures at the highest standard so as to reduce transactioncosts and make ODA disbursement and delivery more flexible, taking into account nationaldevelopment needs and objectives under the ownership of the recipient management of different donor procedures bears a high cost for developing countries especially the poorest and most aid-dependent.

10 For example, meeting multiple donor requirementsemploys a significant proportion of developing countries administrative capacity; it impairsownership over partners own development plans and weakens capacity for effective publicmanagement. This is why the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD set up aspecial task force to look at how aid can be delivered more effectively through simplifying andharmonising donor main purpose of the DAC Task Force on Donor Practices, established for a two-year period,was to elaborate a set of good practice papers on how donors can enhance their operationalprocedures with a view to strengthening partner country ownership.