The 2006 Asian Regional Forum on Aid Effectiveness is a three-day event to be hosted by Asian Development Bank and co-sponsored by the Government of Japan, UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the World Bank.

The objective of the Forum is to facilitate implementation of the Paris Declaration in the Asian and Pacific regions among partner countries and donors, particularly:

• To exchange views and experiences and to assess the achievement of implementation of the Paris agenda (in the areas of: ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for development results and mutual accountability). In this regard, participants are to identify constraints, lessons learned, good practices and future challenges.
• To encourage partner countries and donors to broaden and strengthen actions to improve aid effectiveness.

Participants are expected to discuss the above by utilizing the results of the 2006 Monitoring Survey of the Paris Declaration to be completed in September and selected 12 country case studies.

It is expected that the Regional Forum will not be confined to a debate on implementation of the Paris Declaration and contributions towards the DAC agenda but will draw conclusions on "What is working and what is not? Why? How best to achieve better results? What changes are needed?" The Regional Forum is expected to discuss aid effectiveness comprehensively by combining both operational experience and its monitoring and evaluation.

The Forum will be attended by 150 delegates from participating countries in Asia and the Pacific and donor agencies, namely:

• Participating Asian and Pacific Countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji Islands, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
• Donors: Bilateral and Multilateral agencies (MDBs, UNDP, IFAD, EC and DAC Secretariat, etc.)
• Participation is by invitation only.

For more information (Asian Development Bank Web Site),
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2006/Aid-Effectiveness/default.asp