12 October 2017
OECD Development Centre Calls for New Toolbox to Promote Development
UN Photo/Eva Fendiaspara
story highlights

The Fourth High-level Meeting of the OECD Development Centre Governing Board discussed opportunities and challenges faced by countries transitioning to higher income levels; consequences of international migration for developing countries; drivers of gender inequality; and the extractive sector’s role in development.

Participants adopted a High-Level Communiqué and a ‘Policy Statement on Natural Resource-based Development’.

3 October 2017: Increasingly complex development challenges demand new policy tools, according to policymakers attending a meeting organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Fourth High-level Meeting of the OECD Development Centre Governing Board focused on policy areas critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The meeting convened on 3 October 2017, in Paris, France, under the theme, ‘Embracing development’s complexity.’ Participants discussed: opportunities and challenges faced by countries transitioning to higher income levels; consequences of international migration for developing countries; drivers of gender inequality; and the extractive sector’s role in development.

The Communiqué calls for a broad set of well-being indicators to assess development progress and needs and invites the Centre to build a box of tools on sustainable development transitions.

Participants adopted a High-Level Communiqué and a ‘Policy Statement on Natural Resource-based Development.’ The Communiqué reaffirms the OECD Development Centre’s role as a platform for countries to engage in policy dialogue on equal footing, despite their different development levels. The Communiqué acknowledges that income-based metrics do not fully capture the extent and complexity of development challenges and that a broad set of well-being indicators is required to assess progress and needs. The Communiqué invites the Centre to, inter alia, develop an open platform to discuss the implications of developing countries’ transitions to higher income levels and approaches to address them, and report back in 2019 with proposals to adapt domestic and international cooperation efforts to overcome the middle-income challenges and to build a box of tools on sustainable development transitions.

On migration and development, the Communiqué calls on the Centre to, inter alia: foster discussions on migration’s positive contribution to sustainable development, in order to implement the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and its migration-related goals and indicators; and promote use of the Dashboard to measure the extent to which public policies and institutional arrangements align with international best practices to minimize risks and maximize development gains of migration.

On gender and development, the Communiqué notes agreement on the need for increased cooperation between the Development Centre and the OECD as a whole, particularly through the Policy Dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment to advance implementation of SDG 5 (gender equality) at national and international levels. It recommends that the Centre establish an informal network of national focal points to improve data collection and increase the Centre’s engagement with UN institutions, regional economic commissions and development banks for tracking SDG 5. During the meting, participants underscored the Development Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) as an official data source to track SDG 5 progress.

On natural resource-based development, the Communiqué recommends that the Centre, inter alia: deepen knowledge on good practices on shared value creation from extractive projects; develop principles for contracts in the extractive sector; and explore ways to develop synergies between sustainable management of renewable and non-renewable natural resources for countries’ long-term development.

The ‘Policy Statement on Natural Resource-based Development,’ inter alia, recognizes the need: for a systemic approach to align investment decisions across different sectors; to help countries cope with sharp fluctuations in market conditions; and for actions to ensure that resource-rich countries fully benefit from their natural resources. The Statement encourages the Centre to, inter alia: identify solutions that can be replicated or adapted to different contexts; promote implementation of best practices and standards for the mining sector; improve transparency and help counter corruption in the trading of oil, gas, minerals and forestry; and assess advantages and disadvantages of spending mechanisms to use natural resource revenues to support implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The OECD Development Centre is a forum where countries can share economic and social development policy experiences. The Centre contributes analysis to the development policy debate and helps decision makers identify policy solutions to stimulate growth and improve living conditions in developing and emerging economies. [OECD News Story] [High-Level Communiqué] [Policy Statement on Natural Resource-based Development]

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