At the close of a two day high-level forum on a renewed global partnership for development for a post-2015 era, Under Secretary-General Wu Hongbo has said that the international community can construct a genuine partnership that will support action by all and with effective and efficient monitoring and accountability mechanisms.
Speaking at the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, USG Wu stressed that this partnership "can be as transformative as the development agenda it is meant to support."
The 6-7 June forum is the first of three major consultations in preparation for the 2014 ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum, where stakeholders will advance global dialogue on the future of development cooperation in the post-2015 setting. The candid and constructive exchange by the 160 participants in Addis Ababa resulted in a shared understanding of how to forge a new global partnership for development that he stressed, "is critical to keeping the promises made under the MDGs and for the realization of a post-2015 development agenda, focused on poverty eradication and sustainable development for all."
The forum concluded that the renewed global partnership should continue to concentrate on ending poverty and achieving the goals agreed at the Millennium Summit.
"It must take into account all existing international commitments on development finance," said USD HU
He pointed out that this renewed approach must also effectively promote sustainable development and efforts to address both existing and new development challenges.
"We share a conviction, a vision, from the vantage of lessons learned, on what it will take to make such a global partnership real. It must be owned, and led, from the outset, by the range of stakeholders, with a clear focus on what will enable it to work in practice," stressed USG Hu. He added that a shared sense of the changing nature of development challenges and the ever more integrated development landscape overcomes the North-South dichotomy of providers and recipients had been achieved.
He also called on the need to fulfill ODA commitments of realizing 0.7 per cent of GNI as ODA and underlined that the partnership "must intensify action on policy coherence for development, to include the range of sources for development financing and address the 'big picture' issues that underpin sustainable development for all and effectively support sharing of knowledge and capabilities."
The USG emphasized the need for mutual respect and a reiterated the need for engagement by "all actors on equal footing, in the design of the renewed global partnership, as well as its implementation and monitoring."
For his part, Ahmed Shide, State Minister for Finance and Economic Development of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, stressed that getting the design of a renewed global partnership right is only the first step. "What matters is making sure that it gets implemented; the new global partnership needs to put economic transformation at its center and focus on poverty reduction."
"Ensuring that a post-2015 development agenda is underpinned by an effective monitoring and accountability mechanism will no doubt be critical for the success of addressing development challenges beyond 2015 in an effective manner" He added.
The meeting was informed that the Development Cooperation Forum will continue to serve as a hub for such frank exchange and that the 2014 DCF will serve as a milestone in preparing for a post-2015 development agenda. Wu Hongbo is the Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs
With less than three years left to the final target date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, the international community is stepping up efforts to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. Discussions on a development agenda beyond 2015 are ramping up. 53 African countries have prepared a common vision for such an agenda.
The forum was organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), with support from the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the High-level Symposium. In attendance were: Mr. Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Ethiopia, Mr. Nestor Osorio, President of the Economic and Social Council, Mr. Wu Hongbo, USG for Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Gyan Acharya, USG, High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States and Mr. Carlos Lopes, USG and ECA Executive Secretary.
