CMBD Perspectives — The Busan Declaration and its implications for 2012
The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness wrapped up in Busan, Korea, just over a month ago, in November 2011. The Forum, which has been meeting every three years since 2002, represents an initiative led by the OECD’s Development Aid Committee. It has very recently begun to shift towards mobilizing and facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement in the donor process. We are preparing an in-depth report on this Busan gathering because we see its potential for transformative partnerships and another 2012 turning point of change.
The Forum’s first meeting in Rome back in 2002 produced the Rome Declaration, a set of principles for aid effectiveness which emphasized that development must be delivered based on the priorities of the recipient countries. The 2005 meeting in Paris resulted in the Paris Declaration, which outlined five fundamental principles for making aid effective (i.e. ownership, alignment, harmonization, results and mutual accountability). In 2008, the third meeting coincided with the UNCTAD XII Accra Agenda for Action, taking the step to link donors with developing countries at the main quadrennial gathering of developing countries in the UN system. This year, UNCTAD XIII will convene in Doha on 21 to 26 April to update the plan of action for a “development-centred globalization” that includes the promotion of investment, trade, entrepreneurship and related development policies.
The Busan Forum in November is significant in shifting the focus from an emphasis on the traditional model of ‘donor countries’ to the new environment in which donors come from a wide range of sectors. The Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation expands the traditional perception of the donor pool as being made up of governments, and thus more accurately reflects the current climate, where donors are made up not only of state actors but also charitable and private sector entities. The Busan Partnership commits all actors to work in a way that encourages collaboration and crucial cross-sectoral engagement in development issues. We think the UNCTAD XIII in April merits our scrutiny as we look for this.
Tags: Aid, Busan, Development, OECD, UNCTAD, World economy