MDB's Technical Groups
The multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (DAC/OECD) have worked through various technical groups on issues such as donor cooperation, country analytic work, financial management, procurement, and environmental assessment. The principal charge of each of the technical groups was to develop a set of good practice standards, principles, or products that donors and partner countries alike could use as a basis for harmonizing their policies, procedures, and practices. The recommendations of these technical groups on good practices were endorsed by participants at the High Level Forum in February 2003.
The multilateral development bank (MDB) technical working groups have focused on financial management, procurement, environment assessments, and analytic work.
Environmental Assessment:
There is considerable diversity among institutions in their mandates and approaches to dealing with social and environmental impacts of development projects. Most institutions routinely consider social impacts that are mediated by the environment (such as the human impacts of water pollution), and many also consider a range of physical/biological impacts on directly affected groups (impacts on downstream water supply, displacement, and adverse impacts on local communities or vulnerable groups are examples).
As part of the overall harmonization process, the Multilateral Financial Institutions Working Group on Environment (MFI-WGE), has prepared "A Common Framework for Environmental Assessment: Converging Requirements of Multilateral Financial Institutions." The Common Framework is intended to simplify and facilitate donor coordination, promote consistent communication with borrowers, encourage collaborative capacity building, reduce transaction costs for borrowers, and increase development effectiveness. These document and others being prepared by the MFI-WGE do not supersede the policies of participating institutions.
"Common Approaches to Areas Covered by EIA", a second document of the MFI-WGE, was agreed upon at a technical working group meeting in Washington in April 2003. This document provides a foundation for harmonizing approaches and building client capacity around commonly used principles and processes in the environmental and social areas that environmental impact assessments may cover.
Other MFI- WGE work includes Terms of Reference for EIA and for Environmental Management Plans (Asian Development Bank [AsDB]); Guidance on Environmental Audits (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD]); and Borrower Capacity Building (African Development Bank [AfDB]). The group produced "A Common Framework for Environmental Assessment: A Good Practice Note" (February 2005) which was distributed at the Paris HLF. Work is on-going in areas such as updating the Pollution Prevention and Abatement Sourcebook and the Indigenous Peoples Policy Guidebook; preparing Environmental Guidelines for Small- and Medium-Scale Infrastructure for Multilateral Financial Institutions and Bilateral Donors; and developing a joint work program for the use of country systems.
Related Links:
A Common Framework for Environmental Assessment: A Good Practice Note (February 2005)
Un Cadre Commun pour l'Évaluation Environnementale (février 2005)
A Common Framework for Environmental Assessment: Converging Requirements of Multilateral Financial Institutions (January 2003)
Financial Management:
The MDBs and the OECD-DAC have been conducting technical work on good practices in financial management in separate but closely coordinated teams.
As part of this, specific agreements (the OECD-DAC's "Good Practice Papers" and the MDBs "Frameworks for Collaboration") were reached on how to work together in the areas of financial management diagnostic work and financial reporting and auditing.
The MDBs and the OECD-DAC members have asked the Public Sector Committee of the International Federation of Accountants to issue an accounting standard for development assistance- a broadly accepted global benchmark to which both donors and aid receiving governments can subscribe. This work is being undertaken collaboratively with input by partner countries, professional groups and the private sector.
See Also:
DAC-OECD Joint-Venture on Public Financial Management
Procurement :
Representatives of multilateral development banks (the Harmonization Working Group) have been working together to produce "harmonized" bidding and proposal documents. In October 2002, the MDBs heads of procurement agreed on a harmonized prequalification document for civil works contracts. The working group - consisting of 10 international financial institutions (IFIs) - has made substantial progress toward harmonizing IFI-financed procurement. For example, agreement has been reached on harmonized master bidding documents for procurement of goods; prequalification of civil works; and requests for proposals for consulting services. A draft harmonized document for Civil Works was approved by the group in May 2004 and is pending understandings on copyrights. An electronic government procurement website (www.mdb-egp.org) was launched in November 2004.
See Also:
DAC-OECD Procurement Capacity Building
Joint OECD/DAC - WORLD BANK Round Table Web site - Strengthening Procurement Capacities
Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) Working Group - Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)
UNTIED AID - Official Development Assistance (OECD-DAC)
Master Procurement Documents - Prequalification Documents for Procurement of Works and User’s Guide
Master Bidding Documents - Procurement of Works
Master Bidding Documents Procurement of Goods and User's Guide
Requirements for Local Procurement in Borrowing Countries
Report on the Progress of Work by Heads of Procurement - November 2002
