Ahead of the December 2022 Effective Development Co-operation Summit, the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership met to take key decisions for the success of the Summit.
H.E. Mr. Thomas Gass as host of the Summit opened the meeting by reiterating the importance of the ‘how’ of development co-operation and the relevance of the effectiveness principles in today’s dynamic and complex socio-economic and geopolitical context.
Within this context, Steering Committee members reiterated their full support to rally and mobilise their constituencies for the Summit, and the important ambition to drive more concerted action for the SDGs at country level in line with development effectiveness principles.
In this regard, the meeting began with members welcoming the zero draft outcome document, in particular its concise nature and action focus, and welcomed the process to engage politically with their constituencies. To support Switzerland as the host and penholder, it was agreed to constitute a small and inclusive drafting committee.
Following extensive and inclusive deliberations over two years, the Steering Committee also agreed on the new Global Partnership monitoring framework and process, recognizing in particular recent discussions with partner country governments and other stakeholders in the Benin workshop. The new framework will help produce evidence that better responds to challenges in different contexts and co-operation modalities, as well as to the roles of a broader range of co-operation actors. With a strong focus on leaving no one behind and engaging with different partners, it will be an important tool to strengthen partnerships to deliver on the SDGs. Members also committed to supporting the new process and concurred that the outcome document of the Summit should launch the new monitoring at political level and encourage governments to commit to lead the exercise when the next round begins in 2023.
The meeting was also an opportunity to bring the current work programme to a conclusion. The Bern Call to Action to strengthen country-level statistical systems and data use led by Switzerland was welcomed and launched. An update on the work of a South-South co-operation assessment led by Colombia was also presented. Different evidence and tools developed in the 2020-22 work programme and key trends from the Action Dialogues held in this period, will inform the upcoming ministerial Summit and be launched in a key publication.
To deliver on the vision of greater country action, members also agreed on new roles and responsibilities of the Steering Committee and Co-Chairs and discussed a proposed new delivery model of the Global Partnership. The success of the Partnership will be measured by its ability to influence policy and action, both at country level, but also with regard to global policy issues and challenges, all with the goal to help deliver the SDGs. In the current geopolitical context, this is more important than ever and the broader effectiveness ecosystem, in particular at country level, will have to be mobilized for this.
In conclusion, Co-Chairs stressed that the Summit is a time to mobilize all actors and ‘deliver as a unit’. The Government of Sweden also announced that it would take over the leadership of 'Co-Chair for provider countries' from Switzerland at the Summit.
All documents for the 23rd Steering Committee meeting can be found here.