Specific guiding principles for enhancing alignment and harmonisation on local governance and decentralisation that will apply to specific country contexts

The Specific Guiding Principles for Enhancing Alignment and Harmonisation on Local Governance and Decentralisation are a result of the informal Development Partner Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralization (DPWG-LGD) after the approval of “General Guiding Principles for Enhancing Alignment and Harmonisation on Local Governance and Decentralisation”. The specific guidelines cover the central fields of action under the Paris Declaration, and focus on steps to be taken by the DPWG-LGD both at headquarters and at country level in order to apply the guiding principles in a more operational manner. Earlier studies have indicated that “the challenges of improving alignment and harmonisation are closely linked to two factors: i) how advanced the decentralisation process in the country is and ii) what the overall approach of government to coordination of Development Partner (DP) support is.” The following Specific Guiding Principles reflect a consensual approach on how the informal Development Partners Working Group (DPWG-LGD) participants can translate the adopted “General Guiding Principles for Enhancing Alignment and Harmonisation on Local Governance and Decentralisation” into joint action. These specific guidelines are complementary to other documents and guidelines on DPWG support to DLG.