EC Country Strategy Paper for Bangladesh 2002-2006

age the implementation of projects, including financial management, as well as the endemic
corruption in the country.
XII. Bilateral and Multilateral Donor Co-ordination
The Local Consultative Group (LCG) has been active as a donor co-ordination group in dialogue
with the Government of Bangladesh. There have been regular meetings between the donors
and the government counterparts to review progress and debate particular concerns of interest
to the partners. The LCG has currently 22 sub-groups working on sectoral co-ordination
and crosscutting issues. More active government representation and participation in these subgroups
has been the subject of donor requests.
It is generally recognised that the role of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry
of Finance in co-ordinating donors is currently weak and would need to be strengthened. In
addition, internal government procedures and linkages in the approval of new projects and
budgets are complex and cumbersome, making effective implementation and co-ordination
more difficult.
Co-ordination between EU Member States and the Commission has generally been good and
meetings of the EU Development Counsellors take place on a regular basis. For several years
and upon initiative of the EC Delegation, overview tables have been produced to summarise the
involvement of the EC and EU Member States in the different sectors. In general, consultations
on individual project proposals, including pre-ALA committee meetings and technical missions
are held with representatives of Member States. However, the survey on operational coordination
in summer 1999 while confirming that information exchange between Member
States’ missions and EC Delegations was mostly satisfactory, highlighted that operational coordination
could be improved in terms of sectoral priorities and common approaches (currently
limited to the health sector and NGO consortia).
The new Council guidelines on operational co-ordination between EU Member States missions
and EC Delegations of January 2001 have provided a new impetus. Member States and the
Delegation have been discussing harmonisation of the next cycle of the programming exercises
and have proposed to jointly start for the country strategies as of 2006. The Commission views
this proposal favourable and will consider its feasibility at the appropriate time.
E. The Response Strategy of the European Community 2002 – 2006
I. General Approach and Crosscutting Issues
Based on the analysis above, the reduction of poverty and its eventual eradication will continue
to be the overarching objective of development co-operation between the EC and
Bangladesh. At the same time, the EC co-operation will pay more attention to the interlinkage
between poverty alleviation and progress in the field of economics and trade. The rapid
process of globalisation and its effects on sustainable economic, social and political development
in a Least Developed Country (LDC) such as Bangladesh have emerged as a major
new challenge in the struggle against poverty. Therefore, the EC’s co-operation with
Bangladesh shall also facilitate the integration of the country as a qualified trading partner
into the world trade system.
In terms of methodology, EC development co-operation in Bangladesh will favour – wherever
possible - a programme approach (sector wide approach) over individual projects. The
potentials and constraints (in particular reluctance on the side of the GoB) are described in
more detail below.
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