Speaking on the first day (12 December 2022) of the 2022 Effective Development Cooperation Summit in Geneva, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) kicked off by highlighting the key themes underpinning the international development cooperation landscape. The Summit has been organised by the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), which is a global platform that brings together the providers of development finance and its recipients. This platform is guided by a set of principles that had been agreed upon during a High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (2011) in Busan, South Korea.
In his intervention, Dr Debapriya pointed out that in the recent past, the international development cooperation landscape has undergone significant changes. These include the changes in the profiles of recipient and providers of development finance. A large number of recipients are now low middle-income countries (LMIC) and many of them are graduating from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) category. The evolving situation is also witnessing the rise of new providers such as private philanthropy and Southern institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Moreover, due to the post-COVID 19 aftermath, fallout from the Ukraine war and the looming global recession, there has been a palpable decline in the political traction for foreign aid in provider countries, he opined.
Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya maintained that the GPEDC agenda is based on the grand assumption that good processes will inevitably lead to good results. However, experience shows that this is more complex than that and is greatly dependent on contextual realities at the country level. He said that the resultative inclusive stakeholder partnership in the recipient countries is critical for effective development cooperation
Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya noted that the GPEDC principles were still relevant but needed to be revitalised and reenergised by up taking new content and being responsive to evolving realities. He emphasised the necessity for development cooperation to build on new evidence and knowledge to make it more relevant and robust.
Mr. Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD delivered the keynote presentation during the session. The keynote presentation was based on the findings of a global research project, anchored in CPD, and conducted in six countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He said that there is a lack of accountability mechanism for countries providing development finance. The lack of familiarity with regard to the GPEDC agenda and its processes in both provider and recipient countries was also pointed out as a major hurdle.
Mr Towfiqul highlighted that there was a lack of shared understanding between the provider and the recipient country key stakeholders regarding the design of results indicators and the process of attaining sustainable development outcomes. However, he pointed out the extent of inclusive partnership required to attain consensus on the design of results indicators was largely dependent on the democratic accountability prevalent within the recipient country.
Moreover, he reflected that the extent of ownership of key stakeholders within the scope of foreign development financing was largely concentrated at the project design level and declined down the process chain.
The session was addressed by Dr Rachel Gisselquist, Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER, Ms. Karla de Palma, General Director of the International Cooperation Agency of El Salvador (ESCO), Ms. Laura Aghilarre, Deputy Director General for Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy and Ms. Blanche Simonny Abegue, Regional Representative, Dynamique OSCAF-Gabon.
The 2022 Effective Development Cooperation Summit is being held in Geneva between 12-14 December 2022.