10 December 2012
Development Cooperation Report 2012 Analyzes Aid to Sustainable Development
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The 2012 report examines the links between development cooperation and sustainable development, from global, national and topical perspectives.

It recommends that countries adopt a new development cooperation model, one that integrates green growth thinking in all areas of development cooperation, and ensures a shift in aid allocation from sectors to the national level.

OECD4 December 2012: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2012 issue of its Development Cooperation Report. This year’s report, titled “Lessons in Linking Sustainability and Development,” recommends integrating green growth thinking into all areas of development cooperation.

At the launch event for the publication, Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, highlighted that while it is a difficult task to place environmental protection, conservation and natural resource efficiency at the top of the political agenda, OECD is “working to ensure that sustainable development and inclusive, green growth remain centre-stage in everything we do. We cannot afford to do otherwise.”

The report highlights the need to adopt a new model for development cooperation, in follow up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The new model should: integrates green growth thinking into all areas of development cooperation; reflect the value of natural capital in aid programmes; and ensure funding shifts from a sectoral to national-level focus. The report also recommends that: countries remain focused on allocating 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) as official development assistance (ODA); ODA foster private sector development and investments to make sustainable development activities less risky; and innovative mechanisms, such as pricing carbon, are used to promote the uptake of green growth policies.

The report is divided into five parts. The first part discusses sustainable development efforts since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or Rio Earth Summit), in particular: Brazil’s efforts toward sustainable development; the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) role in shaping policies for sustainable development; and how aid to sustainable development is measured and has grown since 1992. The second part discusses the links between sustainable development and: population dynamics; sustainable energy; air pollutants; water management; and minerals and resource wealth. Part three discusses green growth from a business perspective, and contains case studies from China, Kenya and the Republic of Korea on national green growth plans. Part four addresses greening the global economy, and the implications of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) for development cooperation. The report closes with an overview of DAC members’ aid performance in 2011. [Statement of OECD Secretary-General] [Publication: Development Co-operation Report 2012: Lessons in Linking Sustainability and Development]

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