A reform of the monitoring exercise took place during 2020-2022, resulting in a new monitoring exercise launched at the global Partnership's 2022 High-Level Meeting, also known as the 2022 Effective Development Co-operation Summit. The monitoring reform was undertaken based on a collective reflection by GPEDC stakeholders on the challenges that have accompanied the achievements of the monitoring exercise, and to ensure, going forward, that it delivers on its original promise while meeting the evolving needs of its stakeholders and producing evidence relevant to the effectiveness challenges of today.

The reform produced changes to both the monitoring framework (what is measured) and process (how it is measured):

A key change to the framework is the new Kampala Principle assessment, which tracks the effectiveness of private sector engagement (PSE) in development co-operation. It now will also generate explicit evidence on stakeholders' efforts to meet the pledge to leave no one behind (LNOB), including through a focus on data and statistical systems. Another change is the emphasis on transparency at country-level. In addition, there is also now a tailored approach to monitoring effective development co-operation in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

A key feature of the new monitoring process is its new rolling basis, extending the global monitoring round to a four-year cycle, in line with the current political cycle of the GPEDC, foreseeing a High-Level Meeting every four years. Countries can choose when to conduct the monitoring round, to align data collection, dialogue and action with key country systems and processes. Countries can also decide how long they wish to take to lead a more complete monitoring cycle that is inclusive of a follow-up phase. With a four-year cycle, the monitoring will continue to generate global evidence, to inform global accountability moments such as High-Level Meetings.

 The reform involved extensive consultations, inclusive of GPEDC stakeholders and constituency groups:

• A virtual survey in 2020 enquired about the trade-offs related to making changes to the monitoring exercise, and resulted in 137 responses including 62 from partner countries (summary here)

• A series of 9 consultations in 2020 included 75 participants who shared their views about the monitoring process (summary here)

• In the first half of 2021, a series of 19 consultations were conducted with 169 participants focused on the monitoring framework and process (summary here)

• In a virtual consultation on the Knowledge Platform towards the end of 2021, a first draft proposal of elements of a revised monitoring framework and of a strengthened monitoring process was tested with stakeholders, attracting 40 responses (summary here)

• In the first quarter of 2022, technical work and further discussion with experts took place. Based on feedback received throughout the reform process, a revised proposal was prepared, setting out in detail the new and strengthened monitoring framework and process. During May and June 2022, the revised proposal was made available online for stakeholders’ feedback (here) and inputs were collected at a multi-stakeholder technical workshop in the Republic of Benin (here).

This comprehensive reform of the monitoring exercise has led to a new monitoring proposal, endorsed by the Global Partnership Steering Committee, and launched in 2022 at the 2022 Effective Development Cooperation Summit.

During the reform process, the Global Partnership supported a series of Action Dialogues for Effective Development Co-operation held across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. These allowed for:

1. Country-led "deep dives" to understand how monitoring results are informing policy and behavioral changes of partners and to understand the underlying causes of development effectiveness challenges and
2. Stakeholder-driven dialogues and actions to identify and address key effectiveness bottlenecks.

This work has captured progress and challenges in terms of effective partnering to deliver on the SDGs across different co-operation approaches and modalities.

If you're interested in joining groups related to this Action Area, please e-mail info@effectivecooperation.org.