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DAC@60

DAC Chair Susanna Moorehead

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“The DAC's 60th anniversary is a good moment to look back on what we’ve achieved, where we could have done better and forward to what more needs doing.  Like any 60 year old, the DAC has grown up, changed a great deal, at times become a bit set in its ways, but has also learnt to adapt, flex, respond to shocks, become less risk averse and better able to meet new challenges, incorporate new members and work with others.

Despite these changes, the DAC’s core values and mandate have stood the test of time. A growing number of now 30 donors, willing to compromise, collaborate, take risks, evolve, and learn from each other and from our mistakes, who work together to build consensus to deliver better development policy, practice and outcomes for poor people in developing countries.  The DAC’s basic mandate to help poorer countries create better lives for their people is as valid today as it was in 1961.”

Susanna Moorehead,
Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC),
September 2021

Virtual event

60 years of Development Co-operation

  • Host

      • Susanna Moorehead
      • Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
      • Bio

  • Opening remarks

      • Matthias Cormann
      • OECD Secretary-General
      • Bio

  • Views from the Directorate

      • Jorge Moreira Da Silva
      • Director, Development Co-operation, OECD
      • Bio

  • Panel 1:
    A retrospective look at the DAC’s evolution

      • Helen Clark
      • Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Administrator of UNDP
      • Bio
      • Charlotte Petri Gornitzka
      • Former DAC Chair (2016-2018) and current Assistant Secretary-General, UN and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF
      • Bio
      • Erik Solheim
      • Former DAC Chair (2013-2016) and former Executive Director of UNEP
      • Bio

      • Ham Sang-wook
      • Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, Republic of Korea
      • MOFA

  • Panel 2:
    The future of development and the role of the DAC

      • Ibrahim Mayaki
      • CEO, African Union Development Agency (AUDA – NEPAD), and Honorary President, Sahel and West Africa Club
      • Bio
      • Anita Bhatia
      • Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of Resource Management, UN System Coordination, Sustainability and Partnerships of UN Women
      • Bio
      • Ingrid Brocková
      • State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovak Republic
      • Bio
      • Masood Ahmed
      • President, Center for Global Development
      • Bio

Highlights
from the past ten years

  • 2021A stronger relationship with civil society

    • The DAC adopts a Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-Operation and Humanitarian Assistance. It provides a framework for donors to respect, protect and promote civic space and support and engage with civil society. DAC members commit to supporting civil society organisations as accountable, effective and transparent partners, as part of a wider commitment to protecting rights and democratic values.
    • read more

  • 2020DAC statement on the Covid-19 global pandemic

    • Recognising the deep and lasting impact of the pandemic on countries most in need, the DAC is the first multilateral development organisation to issue a statement on the Covid-19 crisis. It calls on its members to protect existing ODA commitments and commits to working harder to encourage the support of multilateral banks, the private sector and civil society to help partner countries protect and rebuild the livelihoods of poor people affected by the pandemic.
    • read more

  • 2019Fighting sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in international co-operation

    • The DAC responds to public shock and dismay as evidence of sexual exploitation and abuse in the humanitarian sector hits the headlines, adopting the first international legal standard on Ending Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance. Since then, UN agencies such as UNICEF, UNHCR and UNFPA, have also adhered.
    • read more

  • 2019Improved coordination in fragile and conflict affected places

    • Recognising that extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict affected places, the DAC passes a Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus. Members commit to improving coordination, programming and financing to deliver more coherent, complementary and effective approaches. This ground breaking Recommendation has since been formally adopted by six UN agencies: UNDP, WFP, UNICEF, IOM, UNFPA and UN Habitat.
    • read more

  • 2018Aligning with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

    • The DAC redefines its mandate and aligns its objectives with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The overarching ambition of the DAC is now to promote SDG-aligned development co-operation and other relevant policies.
    • read more

  • 2017Blending ODA with other finance

    • Recognising the need to make ODA go further and to mobilise more private finance to deliver the SDGs, the DAC Blended Finance Principles provide the first common framework for bilateral, multilateral, philanthropic and other actors on blending official and private finance for development.
    • read more

  • 2016The DAC elects its first Chairwoman

    • After fourteen Chairmen, the DAC elects Charlotte Petri Gornitzka its first Chairwoman in 2016. Two years later, she is succeeded by another woman, Susanna Moorehead
    • read more

  • 2013Membership of the DAC expands

    • The DAC incorporates its largest ever cohort of new members by welcoming several eastern European nations - the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia – and Iceland. In 2016, Hungary becomes the DAC’s thirtieth member.
    • read more

  • 2012Modernising ODA in a changing world

    • At their High Level Meeting, members commit to modernising ODA and updating its statistical framework to reflect more accurately how it is spent. Changes include how to measure concessional loans to the public sector, recognising mobilised private finance, as well as clarifying the eligibility of peace and security expenditures, and refugee costs in donor countries. In 2019, the DAC adopts the “grant equivalent” system as the new standard for measuring ODA. In 2020, it agrees on how to measure debt treatment on that basis. Work continues on the rules for reporting private sector instruments.
    • read more

  • 2012A new, global ambition for development co-operation

    • The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) is established, bringing together providers and beneficiaries of external assistance. “Aid effectiveness” becomes “development effectiveness” following the adoption of the Busan Partnership Agreement by 161 countries and 56 international organisations. For the first time, public and private actors join forces to implement four internationally agreed principles: country ownership; a focus on results; inclusive partnerships; and transparency and mutual accountability..
    • read more
 
 
 

 


DAC 60 Years, 60 Highlights
brochure

View from the top

High level speakers share their reflections on the work and achievements of the OECD Development Assistance Committee over the last 60 years and its role in the future of international co-operation.

Watch all videos

A history of the DAC

On the eve of the DAC’s 60th anniversary, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) publishes this in-depth history of the Committee, from its creation in the Cold War/decolonisation period to the creation of the SDGs and its evolution in an increasingly complex global co-operation eco-system. 

Read the book: Origins, evolution and future of global development cooperation - The role of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), DIE, 2021


Further reading:
DAC in dates (A brief history, 1961-2006) 

 

 

Discover the DAC today

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is a unique international forum comprised of 30 members, representing the largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA). 

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