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The international aid effectiveness movement began taking shape in the late 1990s. Donors/aid agencies, in particular, began to realize the costs they imposed on aid recipients by their many different approaches and requirements. They began working with each other, and with partner countries, to harmonize these approaches and requirements. The movement picked up steam in 2002 at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico. The international community agreed that it would be important to provide more financing for development—but more money alone was not enough. Donors and partner countries alike wanted to know that aid would be used as effectively as possible. The following year, various donors, and partner countries met at the first Rome High-Level Forum. Leaders of the major multilateral development banks and international and bilateral organizations, and donor and recipient country representatives gathered in Rome for the High-Level Forum on Harmonization (HLF-Rome). They committed to take action to improve the management and effectiveness of aid and to take stock of concrete progress, before meeting again in early 2005. The Rome Declaration on Harmonization set out an ambitious program of activities: - To ensure that harmonization efforts are adapted to the country context and that donor assistance is aligned with the development recipient's priorities.
- To expand country-led efforts to streamline donor procedures and practices.
- To review and identify ways to adapt institutions' and countries' policies, procedures, and practices to facilitate harmonization.
- To implement the good practices principles and standards formulated by the development community as the foundation for harmonization.
In 2005 the international community came together again at the Paris High-Level Forum (2005), where over 100 signatories—from partner governments, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, regional development banks, and international agencies—endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, committing to specific actions that would promote the effective use of aid funds. In 2008 the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness took place in Accra with the participation of about 1,700 participants, including more than 100 ministries and heads of agencies from developing and donor countries, emerging economies, UN and multilateral institutions, global funds, foundations, and 80 civil society organizations. The high-level engagement at Accra helped bring about agreement on the Accra Agenda for Action which expresses the international community's commitment to further increase aid effectiveness.
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