World Bank Progress in Harmonization and Alignment in Low-Income Countries

A series of global initiatives have been launched over the last decade by the international community to accelerate progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals. These initiatives entailed commitments to provide more aid and efforts to strengthen aid effectiveness. They culminated in the Paris Declaration of 2005, which formalized five principles of aid effectiveness. This evaluation addresses Bank efforts in advancing two of the Paris Declaration principles harmonization and alignment (H and A). These are the key tenets of donor coordination falling primarily under the responsibility of donors (including the Bank) and have been considered central to strengthening aid effectiveness. This evaluation comes on the run-up to the fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness, which will be held in Busan, Korea, at the end of November. By focusing on the World Bank's effectiveness in donor H and A and identifying steps to improve the Bank's effectiveness, this work complements the evaluation of the implementation of the Paris declaration at the country level that was recently completed under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Finally, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) derives findings on the factors that are important for promoting H and A. The evaluation does not address the impact of H and A on development outcomes a causal assumption of the Paris declaration because of the great problems of attribution.