The outstanding development cooperation reforms have to respond to dramatic shifts in global landscape, said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). He said this while giving the keynote titled “Towards a New Conversation on Development Effectiveness” at the opening session of the 2019 Busan Global Partnership Forum: Revitalizing the Global Partnership for the attainment of the SDGs on 4 December 2019 in Seoul, South Korea.
Debapriya, a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UN-CDP) emphasised the need to embed the recipient countries’ perspectives in the reform agenda by taking into account ground realities regarding the demand for and use of foreign development finance. This would entail, he pointed out, launching a new global conversation, based on real time knowledge and evidence, with a balanced participation of the Southern and Northern providers as well as new actors of development cooperation including the private sector and philanthropy. It has also become important, Debapriya underscored, to relate the concerns for development effectiveness to delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The 2019 Busan Global Partnership Forum has been jointly organised by the UNDP-OECD managed Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. The Busan Forum, launched in 2011, has emerged as an influential venue that brings together high level policy-makers and practitioners from all over the world to share experiences with a renewed sense of commitment to the Principles for Effective Development Cooperation which are shared ownership, focus on results, partnership, transparency and mutual accountability.
The Vice Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea Mr Taeho Lee welcomed the participants at the opening session of the Forum. The co-chairs of the Forum Mr AHM Mustafa Kamal, FCA, MP, Finance Minister of Government of Bangladesh and Ms Elysée Munembwe Tamukumwe, Vice Prime Minister of Democratic Republic of Congo delivered the introductory remarks at the session.
