Chair of Southern Voice and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, shed light on the lack of coherence in global development policies and the weak accountability in development cooperation at the workshop on “Opportunities and challenges for the multilateral system”. The workshop was initiated by the Independent Expert Group on Global Cooperation in Sweden under the Minister for Strategic Development and Nordic Cooperation, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Sweden, and took place on 11 February 2016 in Stockholm.
Dr Bhattacharya was a discussant at the session on “the Changing Geo-political Landscape and the Evolving Multilateral System”, which was moderated by Ruth Jacoby, Ambassador of Sweden to Germany, Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Andreas Schaal, Head of the Sherpa Office and Global Governance Unit at the OECD, Paris, was the other discussant of the session. Among the participants were State Secretary for Foregn Affairs, Annika Soder; State Secretary for International Development Cooperation, Ulrika Modeer; Minister for Strategic Development and Nordic Cooperation, Kristina Persson; and State Secretary for Strategic Development and Nordic Cooperation, Maja Fjaestad.
Participants discussed the evolution of the multilateral system, and the opportunities and challenges that Agenda 2030 entails for the system. Relevant experts from international development and research communities, officials from the Swedish expert group on global cooperation and other Swedish government officials joined the discussion.