GPEDC [Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation]: Global leaders pledge new actions to boost development co-operation in Mexico
16 Apr 2014
Excerpt
Mexico City – Thirty-eight new initiatives were launched by governments, business, private foundations and civil society to push forward effective development co-operation at the first High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation.

Launched in Busan, South Korea in December 2011 and led by Ministers from Indonesia, Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the Global Partnership helps nations, business and organizations work better together to end poverty.

Over 1500 participants from more than 130 countries, including developing nations like the Central African Republic, emerging providers like Brazil and Turkey, Northern donors, parliamentarians and leaders from big business like Unilever and H&M, came together to discuss progress in development co-operation and to anchor the Global Partnership in a post-2015 development framework.

Opening the conference Mexican President Peña Nieto said: “We have the opportunity to join forces and move together toward a new era of effective co-operation to enable us to achieve inclusive and sustainable development for the world we want. We’re able to build the new architecture of international aid necessary to realize the post-2015 development agenda.”

Concrete commitments launched at the forum include:
:: Increasing aid aimed at strengthening tax administrations in developing countries to ensure they get more of their own money. The initiative, led by Germany, the World Bank and OECD also aims to measure how much aid goes into boosting developing countries tax administrations.
:: The Arab donor co-ordination group pledged to step up development co-operation with developing countries in ways that are fully in line with the Global Partnership Principles.
:: Philanthropic foundations launched a set of guidelines on how the philanthropic sector can engage with governments and other stakeholders in the reality of post-2015 development…

Helen Clark: Speech at the Opening of the First High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation
15 Apr 2014
Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator
Speech at the Opening of the First High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, Mexico City, Mexico
[Excerpt]
…In the new development architecture, the role of South-South and triangular co-operation, civil society organizations, the private sector, and major foundations will continue to grow. This proliferation of actors brings opportunities, but only if it can be navigated. It is important to support building the capacity of the poorest countries and communities to access those opportunities.
This reminds us of the catalytic role ODA can play in supporting the development of national institutions and capacities to leverage all available sources of development finance to reach national development objectives and make progress on internationally agreed development goals.
This can be the generation which eradicates poverty and turns the tide on inequalities, citizen insecurity, and climate change and other forms of environmental degradation. Achieving those objectives needs the inclusive approaches to which the Global Partnership has committed. The more effective this partnership is, the greater the progress the world will make on an ambitious post-2015 agenda. That is why what happens in these discussions in Mexico City matters.