Building on the commitments made in the Geneva Summit Declaration, and following an inclusive consultation process, the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership agreed on a new Work Programme for 2023-26. Steering Committee members shared their enthusiasm and commitment to mobilizing their constituencies and partners to champion effective development co-operation at all levels towards achieving the SDGs, driven by the four effectiveness principles

 

In their opening remarks, Co-Chairs emphasized how the shift towards a more country-focused and member-led Work Programme will help to deliver better development results. H.E. Mr. Monoarfa Suharso, Minister of National Development Planning of Indonesia, reiterated the need to better understand the effectiveness challenges, intensify dialogue and systematise learning, noting Indonesia’s own efforts to support effective private sector engagement, South-South Co-operation and engagement with other global fora including the G20.  

 

Ms. Marie Ottosson, Deputy Director General of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, underlined the “huge opportunities” the Committee has with this new Work Programme to drive behaviour change, both at country and global level, and that everyone needs to show commitment to make tangible contributions to its implementation. 

 

The Steering Committee further discussed and agreed on steps towards delivering three core outputs of the Work Programme

(i) Generating evidence

(ii) Driving informed policy dialogue and action and;

(iii) Fostering political awareness, behaviour change and uptake. 

All core outputs focus on promoting trust, policy action and behaviour change in countries, while strengthening accountability on effectiveness commitments including at the global level. 

 

The new monitoring exercise – the backbone of the Work Programme – provides new and relevant evidence that empowers country-level actors to understand and tackle challenges towards better development co-operation. H.E. Mrs. Judith Suminwa Tuluka, State Minister of Planning of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reiterated the importance of translating the political commitments from the Geneva Summit into action by using the monitoring to track progress and help deliver the SDGs at mid-point of the 2030 Agenda, and to operationalise Agenda 2063. Egypt and Nepal among the 35 partner countries which have thus far confirmed their participation in the Global Partnership’s 4th monitoring round – presented their progress in conducting the monitoring exercise.

 

Complementing the core outputs, five member-led thematic initiatives for 2023 and 2024 were launched by coalitions of partners represented in the Steering Committee. These initiatives – on Data for Effective Development, Civil Society Enabling Environment, Private Sector Engagement, Subnational Data to Localize the SDGs, and South-South Co-operation – contribute to greater awareness among different communities and thematic networks on the benefits of effective development co-operation and drive country-level action to foster policy change. 

 

Furthermore, the Steering Committee agreed on strategic events at country, regional and global levels as well as other advocacy priorities to foster political awareness for behaviour change, uptake of effective development co-operation and systematic learning. The advocacy work will build on and reinforce the monitoring exercise including its findings and related dialogues. 

 

To conclude, the Committee officially declared the Work Programme as adopted. Co-Chairs pointed to the collective responsibility of all Steering Committee members and stakeholders of the Global Partnership to implement it and drive development effectiveness at all levels. Mr. Vitalice Meja, Executive Director of Reality of Aid Africa, urged members to “roll up our sleeves, start the work and ensure that we are successful and have impact at the country level – that is where it all matters.” 

 

The Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) and UN Global Compact were also welcomed as new members of the Steering Committee.  

All documents for the 25th Steering Committee meeting can be found here