1 December 2016: The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) held its second meeting, where participants discussed ways to promote and ensure more effective partnerships to support countries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). The Second High Level Meeting (HLM2) agreed on the Nairobi Outcome Document, on effective development cooperation as a means to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The GPEDC was established at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2011 and came into effect in 2012. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) jointly chair the GPEDC, which aims to ensure that development cooperation aligns with developing country priorities, focuses on achieving transformative results, includes all relevant stakeholders, and ensures transparency and accountability.

Over 2,500 participants from more than 130 countries convened for the HLM2 in Nairobi, Kenya, from 28 November to 1 December 2016. During the meeting, Malawi, Mexico and the Netherlands handed over the GPEDC Co-Chairs’ role to Bangladesh, Germany and Uganda.

Participants underscored the importance of monitoring frameworks and country-led data to support evidence-based development interventions. UNDP Administrator Helen Clark stressed the importance of predictable aid flows and use of country systems. She outlined three recommendations for the GPEDC, saying it must: become country-focused, recognize that results happen at country levels and translate its objectives into action on the ground; unleash the potential of multi-stakeholder participation; and bolster existing relationships and facilitate new ones, including North-South, South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

The Nairobi Outcome Document calls for urgent action on each of the GPEDC’s four principles. First, to accelerate ownership of development priorities by developing countries, partners will: work with parliaments to improve scrutiny of development cooperation and empower local governments to localize the SDGs; develop and support transparent, accountable and inclusive national development strategies and encourage alignment of partners to those strategies; strengthen and use country systems; improve harmonization of providers of development cooperation; and support the inclusion of the private sector and civil society in procurement processes.

Second, to strengthen focus on results, partners will further develop, support and use country-level results frameworks and national statistical systems, and adapt them to reflect SDG targets and indicators, as well as to generate disaggregated data to report on progress. Third, to promote inclusive development partnerships, the GPEDC will increase efforts to ensure an enabling environment for all partners, among other actions.

Fourth, to strengthen transparency and accountability, the GPEDC will improve publication of open data on development cooperation and improve local capacity to provide transparent information to citizens.

Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UNDP, said the HLM2 had reaffirmed effective development cooperation as “an enabler for sustainable development” and noted the importance of “inclusion, trust and innovation in our efforts.” He said the Nairobi Outcome Document and results from the GPEDC’s monitoring efforts will provide a critical input to the next session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), as well as to overall efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure prosperity.

In advance of the meeting, UNDP and OECD held a workshop on Monitoring of Effective Development Cooperation to assess progress, based on an assessment of 81 countries and territories, marking the conclusion of the Second Monitoring Round of the Global Partnership. This event complimented the report, ‘Making Development Co-operation More Effective: 2016 Progress Report,’ which provides data reported by the 81 countries on the GPEDC’s four principles. [GPEDC Press Release on Outcome] [UNDP Press Release] [UNDP Administrator Speech] [UNDP Assistant Administrator Statement] [UNDP Administrator Statement at Side Event] [GPEDC Blog] [Nairobi Outcome Document] [Making Development Co-operation More Effective: 2016 Progress Report] [HLM2 Website]