International Development Cooperation Report Consultation Forum
Ms. Shamshad Akhtar Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Development of DESA
20 September 2012, New York
As we enter into debates on Post 2015 Development Agenda, the topic of development cooperation framework (DCF) has assumed renewed significance. These debates have been triggered by recognition that poverty remains overwhelming, large segments of population remain underserved, and our planet is creaking with the population pressures and reckless growth in consumption and production patterns. While global prosperity served us well, its unsustainability is a real threat to global economy, society and environment.
Reflections on how we build and enhance the DCF further are timely. Greater concentration on infusing creative and newer thinking on different dimensions will help shape the DCF effectively, while helping to think through the design and implementation of sustainable development framework.
In this context, let me warmly welcome all of you for this timely event that is aimed at launching the preparations for the Second International Development Cooperation Report of DESA. I appreciate and thank the Government of Germany for their support for this endeavor.
The Rio+20 sets the stage for deliberations in number of areas. The policy guidance offered during Rio+20 already identifies the key pillars of futuristic development agenda. It advocates need for getting the job done more effectively by ensuring we work simultaneously on the enablers and facilitators to achieve results. The post-2015 development agenda, the follow-up to the Rio+20 Conference and the upcoming discussions on the financing of the emerging sustainable development agenda all require supportive Global Partnerships on Development Effectiveness.
Today, after this meeting we are launching the MDG Task Force report on the Global Partnership for Development Effectiveness that served us well in the preceding years. As the global crisis deepened and protracted, commitments of international community have fallen short of expectations, both quantatively in terms of aid flows and qualitatively. Today we have to reflect on how the development cooperation framework can help us carry forward the work entrusted to international community. At the same time, we have to position more creatively and pragmatically to prepare the framework for the Post 2015 Development Agenda and ensuring we structure supportive development cooperative arrangements and define what its core elements and contours will be and adopt rules of games that we all commit to abide by. Our challenge is to examine current and futuristic plan and shape the arrangements accordingly.
I trust, the Second IDCR will provide very useful analysis of current and emerging trends in development cooperation. Drawing from lessons will be helpful. Setting the right stage for a more effective cooperative arrangement will enhance development effectiveness in this resource constraint environment. Second IDCR will serve as a useful tool to send a message that can shape and inform the outcome of some of the political processes.
For DESA this is a strategic product that has motivated all DESA divisions to pool expertise and offer an integrated view of challenges and opportunities in the Second IDCR. By combining our analytical expertise with support to intergovernmental processes, the department is well-placed to advance the new sustainable development agenda. Such collaboration helps ensure that the sum total of the work of the department is greater than the individual parts.
It is good see that DESA is able to engage key partners in the production of the Second IDCR and ensure the document is produced with collective wisdom and benefit of governmental views. We very much look forward to your ideas and perspectives on how the report can serve the international community most effectively.
In closing, let me wish you useful deliberations and exchanges over the next two days and count on this group to shape the overall vision for the report as well as the conceptual design and look forward to concrete proposal for further deliberations.