25 October 2013: Governments and aid organizations met in Montreux, Switzerland, to discuss the future role of development cooperation and consider how to mobilize new sources of funding to meet emerging sustainable development challenges. The conference, held on the theme of ‘Development Cooperation in the Post-2015 Era: Sustainable Development For All,’ was one in a series of country-led preparatory events for the fourth Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) jointly organized the high-level symposium, which took place from 24-25 October 2013. Over 100 high-level representatives of governments, civil society, the private sector, and academic institutions participated.

Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and Martin Dahinden, SDC Director-General, served as Co-Chairs. Dahinden observed that the majority of the world’s poor are now in middle-income countries (MICs), and that foreign direct investment (FDI) exceeds official development assistance (ODA). He called for a new global partnership to include actors from emerging economies in the global South, including the private sector, the scientific community, southern think tanks and civil society, and philanthropic foundations.

Néstor Osorio, ECOSOC President, said past approaches to development cooperation evolved largely in isolation from sustainable development concepts. He assured participants that messages from the Forum will form a critical input to the ministerial-level DCF taking take place in New York in July 2014.

Thomas Gass, DESA, noted that the new development goals will be broader in scope than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and suggested that development cooperation can help leverage resources by promoting philanthropy, vertical funds, innovative sources of development finance and South-South cooperation. Gass recalled that in a Special Event in September 2013, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) called for “a post-2015 development agenda that is unified and universal. It will have sustainable development at its core, yet keep poverty eradication as its highest priority. It will apply to all countries, developed and developing.”

Participants also discussed: partnership challenges, such as how the traditional focus on poverty eradication can be brought together with emerging sustainable development issues; how development cooperation should evolve to advance the post-2015 development agenda; implications for resource allocation among countries and sectors; and global monitoring and accountability. [ECOSOC Meeting Page] [DCF Preparation Information] [SDC Meeting Page] [Symposium Programme] [Statement of ECOSOC President] [Statement of SDC DG] [Statement of DESA ASG]