Donors prepare joint cooperation strategy
Saturday, 18 October 2008
FE Report
Fourteen major donors have agreed for the first time to assist Bangladesh in a harmonised way from next year as they and the government have recently prepared a joint cooperation strategy (JCS), officials said Thursday.
"We'll sit next week in Dhaka with donors to work out details on assistance strategy to Bangladesh under the JCS," a senior official of Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the FE.
Largest donor World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), the USA, United Nations, European Commission (EC), Denmark, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Korea have been participating in the JCS for Bangladesh.
Following allegations by some Bangladesh's policy makers and civil society people against the donors for their separate assistance programmes which they said affect the effective use of aid badly.
Earlier in 2005, the major donor World Bank prepared a three-year country assistance strategy for helping Bangladesh in coordination with Japan, ADB and the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).
After ending the period of the strategy paper, all the donors again started assisting Bangladesh according to their own strategy.
"Bangladesh had been trying to harmonise development assistance and implementation of the Paris Declaration for effective use of aid for many days. At last major donors this year agreed to prepare a JCS for assisting the country," the ERD official said.
The government and 14 major bilateral and multilateral donors last month signed a deal for framing the JCS vowing to participate in the Bangladesh's development in line with the country's poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) and to ensure aid effectiveness.
"The JCS for Bangladesh has described details about the strategy and criteria of aid effectiveness aiming to alleviate poverty in the country," the ERD official said.
He said: "In the meeting next week we will discuss in the working group what kind of support will be offered by the donors under the JCS and how those will be managed."
Usually donors take different programmes and offer financial support separately to the government discussing with its agencies concerned. But under the JCS, the donors will undertake the programmes in a coordinated approach with other development partners.
Fourteen major donors have agreed for the first time to assist Bangladesh in a harmonised way from next year as they and the government have recently prepared a joint cooperation strategy (JCS), officials said Thursday.
"We'll sit next week in Dhaka with donors to work out details on assistance strategy to Bangladesh under the JCS," a senior official of Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the FE.
Largest donor World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), the USA, United Nations, European Commission (EC), Denmark, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Korea have been participating in the JCS for Bangladesh.
Following allegations by some Bangladesh's policy makers and civil society people against the donors for their separate assistance programmes which they said affect the effective use of aid badly.
Earlier in 2005, the major donor World Bank prepared a three-year country assistance strategy for helping Bangladesh in coordination with Japan, ADB and the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).
After ending the period of the strategy paper, all the donors again started assisting Bangladesh according to their own strategy.
"Bangladesh had been trying to harmonise development assistance and implementation of the Paris Declaration for effective use of aid for many days. At last major donors this year agreed to prepare a JCS for assisting the country," the ERD official said.
The government and 14 major bilateral and multilateral donors last month signed a deal for framing the JCS vowing to participate in the Bangladesh's development in line with the country's poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) and to ensure aid effectiveness.
"The JCS for Bangladesh has described details about the strategy and criteria of aid effectiveness aiming to alleviate poverty in the country," the ERD official said.
He said: "In the meeting next week we will discuss in the working group what kind of support will be offered by the donors under the JCS and how those will be managed."
Usually donors take different programmes and offer financial support separately to the government discussing with its agencies concerned. But under the JCS, the donors will undertake the programmes in a coordinated approach with other development partners.