ORU Fogar at the global debate on development Effectiveness
On March 17-20, the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) held a virtual workshop on its 2020-22 Work Programme. This meeting built on the discussions at the 19th Steering Committee meeting in Seoul (5-6 December 2019) http://www.regionsunies-fogar.org/es/media-files/noticias/505-seguimos-trabajando-para-la-eficacia-de-la-cooperacion , and the strategy framing the preparations of the 2020-22 Work Programme.
This new 2020-22 Work Programme is to be adopted at the strategic level by the next GPEDC’s Steering Committee meeting, scheduled to take place in New York in May 2020. The work programme will guide the Global next Partnership’s work up until the next High-Level Meeting in 2022, half way to 2030.
Initially, the workshop was to be held in Brussels on March 17-18, but under COVID-19 protection measures a virtual format was decided, together with a less concentrated time schedule, extending for four days. The debates were joined by a total of 90 participants representing over 35 countries and organisations.
The basis for discussion was the strategy paper ( https://effectivecooperation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Co-chair-proposal-for-strategic-priorities-1.pdf) , which sets the course for the work programme with a new vision and three strategic priorities: accelerating development effectiveness to deliver the 2030 Agenda; building better partnerships; and leveraging monitoring for action in a range of proposed action areas, including a review of the Global Partnership.
Together with UNDP-Art, UCLG and the Swiss cooperation Co-chair, ORU-Fogar (represented by Javier Sánchez, Generalitat de Catalunya) led the discussions on action area, 2.6. Strengthening development effectiveness at subnational level to achieve the SDGs. The initial proposal was presented, debated with interest stakeholders, and fine-tuned into a new proposal, to be found here ( https://knowledge.effectivecooperation.org/content/action-areas-26-development-effectiveness-sub-national-level ). The proposal draws on the growing awareness of the key role of local and regional governments, and their associations, as development actors to reach the SDGs. Next steps include discussions (video conferencing) and mobilizing different development actors; mapping of ongoing initiatives, identify good practices, develop case studies; and document the process and feed the High Level Meeting in 2022.
The virtual meeting was an important step to move from the vision and strategic considerations for the next work programme to the articulation of tangible outcomes and concrete actions to position development effectiveness as a key driver for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Its insightful debates will help the Co-chairs and action areas leads to advance the preparations of a work programme for discussion at 19th Steering Committee Meeting (planned to take place on 11-12 May in New York). However, based on current restriction measures in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges around an “in-person”, GPEDC Co-chairs are considering alternative arrangements for this event.
