In July, the international community will come together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to identify ways to provide the necessary resources to achieve our sustainable development objectives over the coming years. Taking place on the African continent, the third International Conference on Financing for Development will provide an opportunity to ensure that the wide range of development resources available — including aid, partnerships with other actors, and our own domestic resources — can be harnessed effectively by developing countries to support our development priorities.
As co-chair of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, I see a strong need to maintain a focus not only on how many resources we can raise, but to ensure they are employed effectively to support developing countries’ efforts. In January 2015, I co-chaired the seventh meeting of the Global Partnership’s Steering Committee in The Hague, the Netherlands, which confirmed the importance of exploring better ways to use development finance tools, and the critical need for keeping the principles of effective development cooperation — country ownership, focus on results, inclusive partnerships, and transparency and accountability — front and center of this year’s major discussions on financing for development and the post-2015 agenda.
At the 2015 World Bank Spring Meetings, the Global Partnership held a side event on strengthening development finance, particularly from a partner country perspective. The meeting featured interventions from a range of developing countries, including Rwanda, Tanzania, East Timor, Kenya and South Sudan, the g7+ group of fragile states, as well as views from development partners, including Development Initiatives, the Netherlands, Mexico and the U.N. Development Program. Discussions focused on how the principles of effective development cooperation can contribute to making better use of existing resources for development, as well as leveraging more quality public and private finance to achieve sustainable development for all.