The Italian Cooperation in Uganda and the aid harmonization and coordination process

The Italian Cooperation in Uganda is involved in the aid harmonization and coordination process with other development partners. This process has been enhanced by the approbation of the Memorandum of Understanding of the Uganda Joint Assistance Strategy (UJAS) by the board of the World Bank.

The UJAS is a coordination process which many development partners in Uganda joined: Africa Development Bank, World Bank, German, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, USAID, DFID and the Delegation of the European Commission.

The UJAS aims at supporting the implementation of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) through the aid harmonization process and the comparative advantages of its members in areas where they operate.

The UJAS is also a strategy bolstering the Rome and Paris Declarations, its purpose being to harmonize its members’ development policies with the Government of Uganda. This joint strategy is thus the implementation of the aid effectiveness principles, discussed and signed in Rome on February 23rd 2006 during the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which was organized by the General Direction of Cooperation and Development/Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Economy, World Bank and OECD-DAC.

The UJAS is also a results-oriented strategy and is based on the “Partnership Principles”, which were signed between the Government of Uganda and donors in 2003 with the aim of coordinating and harmonizing aid development policies of donors and accordingly reducing aid transaction costs. It also aims at harmonizing donors’ policies in order to avoid overlapping in their programmes and projects. This harmonization process requires a big flexibility so that development partners can adapt their interventions according to the needs of the Government of Uganda. The process, entailing a “division of labour” exercise, makes aid development policies more transparent and efficient.

The Government of Uganda has expressed its high interest in the implementation of such an exercise which aims at improving the Government’s dialogue with the development partners.