Statement by members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), on the occasion of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development.
Development co-operation is facing both current, unprecedented challenges and longstanding calls to better reflect the reality of today’s world in transformation. As the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), we need to review our roles, tools and partnerships and explore all necessary changes to better respond to the financing and development needs of partner countries.
The DAC is launching its review process to examine the implications of the changing landscape of development finance and of discussions in Sevilla, including for the role of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and of the DAC itself.
We will do this through an inclusive process and will work in dialogue with our partners and other stakeholders. We want to listen to and learn from others as we chart the future of our efforts to contribute to a sustainable, effective global development financing system, including through a more open and inclusive DAC.
This is our priority. We will work intensively to deliver change in response to the current urgency, while not shying away from fundamental questions requiring longer-term transformation.
The OECD and the DAC have long been part of the financing for development architecture and have been actively involved in providing data, evidence and analysis to underpin an ambitious outcome in Sevilla. We have listened carefully to partners and stakeholders in the discussions. We support the Sevilla outcome, which is an important achievement in challenging times, and we will make all efforts to ensure effective implementation.
We recognise that there are important changes in the landscape of development co-operation, and a diversity of actors, issues, and concerns. This is a time of great challenges and pressures on development finance, due to major cuts in the provision of ODA. In this situation, we must make every effort to make the development finance system fit for the future and leave no one behind. We want to hear our partners’ perspectives on what has worked well and what has not, and what changes are needed in the spirit of new inclusive and impactful partnerships to respond better to country needs, and to learn from South-South and triangular partnerships.
Within the broad policy field of development co-operation that the DAC covers, we have a special responsibility for ODA -- to ensure its provision, quality and effectiveness and that it improves people’s lives, especially the poorest and most vulnerable and those in fragile situations. Through accurate and transparent measurement and norm-setting for ODA, we aim to increase effectiveness, accountability and impact.
While graduation from ODA eligibility is a milestone to celebrate, it requires preparation and partnership. We are taking and will take concrete steps to support smoother transitions, sustainability of financing, and continuous partnership. We will continue to reflect on how broader measures of sustainable development might inform our development co-operation strategies and ODA eligibility.
We recognise that ODA is only one part of the international development co-operation landscape. How ODA intersects with and enables other forms of finance, and how we can promote coherence across instruments and actors and leverage ODA for the provision of global public goods, for mobilising domestic resources and for attracting private capital, are critical issues.
We recognise the need for inclusive multilateral dialogue on parameters and objectives of international development co-operation. DAC Members are not the only providers of development co-operation, and we are committed to working collaboratively with partner countries, our partners in the UN system, other providers and stakeholders to foster synergies across international fora and reinvigorate the development co-operation architecture. In challenging times, the case for collaboration across the development finance system has never been stronger. We look forward to working with others to make the vision of Sevilla a reality.
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