Further to the discussions in the CIB meeting that took place in June, the CIB Working Group Secretariat participated in the last meeting of the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness on 28-29 June in Paris.
As a result of the Busan Partnership Agreement (December 2011), the meeting in Paris laid the foundation for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, marking a new phase in the development effectiveness agenda.
Following the strategy agreed in the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, the delegation of local and regional governments (composed of the CIB secretariat on behalf of UCLG and the Government of Catalonia in representation of ORU – FOGAR) advocated for the need to grant the constituency we represent a place in the new Steering Committee of the Global Partnership and in its default, to allow participation as observers.
The delegation further highlighted the important role that local governments should play in these debates and the progress that is being made on the assessment of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Local Government Development Cooperation.
Despite the efforts made, there is no confirmation that participation of Local and Regional Governments in the Steering Committee will be agreed on.
The delegation has identified tree points of action for the near future:
• The need to seek alliances with other stakeholders in order to ensure that our positions will be taken on board,
• To facilitate information about our cooperation efforts to the online platform of the Global Partnership,
• Identify pilot countries to track how the progress indicators of the Busan commitments will be defined and to make sure that local governments and their associations will be included in this process.
The full report on the meeting of the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness can be found here.