Paris declaration on aid effectiveness

Adopted at the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (March 2005) the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, has been prepared with broad participation from development practitioners, through a process coordinated by the High-Level Forum Steering Committee. The declaration will outline a set of joint commitments and targets for governments and multilateral donors to reach over the next five years.

Against the different key principles of the Rome Declaration (2003) and the Marrakech memorandum on Managing for Development Results (2004), the following commitments for donors and partners are highlighted in the Declaration:

• Ownership — Partner countries exercise effective authority over their development policies, strategies and national systems when relying, partially or entirely, on external resources.
• Alignment — Donors base their overall support on partner countries’ national development strategies, systems and procedures. This creates mutual commitments. For partners, it means having sound and operational development policies and systems for managing aid. For donors it means using partner countries policies, institutions and systems as the framework of reference for providing aid.
• Harmonisation — Donors organise their multiple activities in ways that maximise their collective efficacy.
• Managing for results — Improves the performance and accountabilities in achieving sustainable improvements in development by focusing on development results.