In pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, the heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions, and representatives of other financial institutions and partner countries gathered in Rome, Italy in February, 2003 to deliberate on ways and means of how to increase aid effectiveness. That was the High-Level Forum on 'Harmonisation'.
Their deliberations were part of an international drive to harmonise the operational policies, procedures, and practices of their institutions with those of partner country systems to improve the effectiveness of development assistance. They adopted a Rome Declaration on Harmonisation on February 25, 2003.
At the High-Level Forum on 'Aid Effectiveness' held in Paris in March, 2005, ministers of developed and developing countries responsible for promoting development and heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions followed up on the Rome Declaration and the core principles put forward at the Marrakech Roundtable on Managing for Development Results (February 2004), and adopted a Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness on 2 March 2005. As a result, we are embedded to this "harmonisation drive," and are affected by it rather significantly.
Harmonisation presupposes the existence of sets of operational policies, procedures, and practices that have been separately developed, espoused and applied over time by their respective institutions under different historical circumstances.
Harmonisation cannot mean to create the uniform set of policies, procedures and practices for adoption by all the institutions. It is therefore reassuring that the Rome Declaration on Harmonisation acknowledges that "our historical origins, institutional mandates, governance structures, and authorising environments vary."
Harmonisation is to prevent the operational and procedural differences of each institution from hampering and defeating the purposes of any other institution's operations while maintaining a certain level of latitude that will allow each institution's creativity and preferred mode of operations to develop under its own historical, cultural and socio-economic circumstances.
The fundamental empirical evidence for that conclusion is that every individual has his/her own mind and expectations. Respect for the individual's freedom of choice is the fundamental tenet of democracy. The world is much safer and more democratic with diversity and pluralism. A plural society is the reality of human existence.
Mr Douglas Daft, former CEO of Coca-Cola wrote a remarkable article, "Back to classic Coke" for the Financial Times eight years ago (FT, 27 March 2000). It acknowledged the paradox of globalisation. The more globalisation progresses, the more opportunities for diversity will develop. As communication and technology annihilated physical distance, as in Toynbee's sense, and so they also accelerate the fragmentation of individuals' interests and habit.
Convergence did not take place; standardisation became passé. Mr Daft explains why Coca-Cola failed: "The world was demanding greater flexibility, responsiveness and local sensitivity, while we were further centralising decision-making and standardising our practices, moving further away from our traditional multi-local approach. We were operating as a big, slow, insulated, sometimes even insensitive 'global' company; and we were doing it in a new era when nimbleness, speed, transparency and local sensitivity had become absolutely essential to success."
What they learned was "something simple, yet powerful: that the next big evolutionary step of 'going global' now has to be 'going local'. In other words, we had to rediscover our own multi-local heritage." Coca-Cola must also be able "to act nimbly and with great sensitivity in every local community where our brands are sold."
"Think local, act local" is a new credo for Coca-Cola. The global success of Coca-Cola is "the direct result of people drinking it one bottle at a time in their own local communities." The "think local, act local" policy is to place "responsibility and accountability in the hands of our colleagues who are closest to those billions of individual sales." Daft explains:
"We will not abandon the benefits of being global. But if our local colleagues develop an idea or strategy that is the right thing to do locally and it fits within our fundamental values, policies, and standards of integrity and quality, then they have the authority and responsibility to make it happen. Just as important, we will hold them accountable for the outcomes of that idea or strategy."
Diversity flourishes when freedom of choice is protected and reciprocally honoured. Freedom of choice is not unlimited, however. Mr Daft underscores the contours in which local diversity can be promoted, i. e., an idea or strategy should be compatible with "our fundamental values, policies, and standards of integrity and quality" and it entails responsibility. Proponents of such an idea or strategy should be "accountable for the outcomes of that idea or strategy."
Our fundamental values are reflected, for example, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is now customary international law binding all subjects of international law. Thus, all participants in the High-Level Forum on Harmonisation are subject to the prescriptions included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Some of those provisions included in the Universal Declaration are unifying peoples around the world and promoting sustainable development as we strive toward an inclusive and equitable global economic system. For instance, Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration provides comprehensive coverage for the protection of well-being of individuals:
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
Further, Article 26 stipulates unequivocally, "Everyone has the right to education." According to the Asian Development Bank, Pakistan's adult literacy rate stands 49.9 %. Education provides basic skills essential for the gathering, dissemination, and enjoyment of knowledge and information. The right to education applies to everybody, regardless of sex, and it should start at early stages. Article 26 thus provides, "Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
Elementary education shall be compulsory." Article 26.2 stipulates quite specifically that education "shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms." These values cannot be compromised in the name of "diversity".
Freedom of choice entails responsibility. Those who make choices must face consequences of their decisions and be accountable to those who are affected by such decisions. Accountability is a complementary component of good governance, which hinges on transparency of decision-making processes and disclosure of pertinent information about the subject-matter under consideration.
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