Busan in a Nutshell

What next for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation?

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, established in Busan, South Korea in 2011, set the international standard on the principles of effective aid and good development to which all development actors should subscribe.

These principles include:

  • Country leadership and ownership of development strategies;
  • A focus on results that matter to the poor in developing countries;
  • Inclusive partnerships among development actors based on mutual trust; and
  • Transparency and accountability to one another.

All development stakeholders – including traditional donors and emerging providers – must respect and uphold these key principles by fulfilling the promises they made at Busan. For this to happen, the Global Partnership will need to rely on strong vision, high-level political engagement and a robust but flexible global accountability mechanism.

Key recommendations

In finalizing the global monitoring framework Oxfam recommends that the Steering Committee:

  • Rely on inclusive frameworks that deliver the results which matter most to the poor, rather than to their donors, taking into account the different social, economic, cultural, political and legal factors at play in creating a CSO-enabling environment;
  • Consider strategies and policies that promote sustainable enterprises and high-quality jobs for the poorest parts of the population;
  • Support the implementation of a common, open transparency standard by ensuring that cooperation providers meet an intermediate target of publishing aid data by December 2013;
  • Assess gender results, not only in terms of how developing countries measure associated budget allocations, but also how well they integrate women’s rights across their national development strategies.

For their part, Southern providers and the private sector:

  • Should either respect the new global monitoring framework or take concrete steps to show how they plan to monitor their own performance within a reasonable timeframe.
  • Must live up to the challenge of putting an effective accountability mechanism in place as development actors, at both a global and country level.

Related links

> Busan Aid Effectiveness Forum 2011

> Blog: Busan Aid Effectiveness Forum: A win for poor people?

> Video: Good aid

> Issues Oxfam works on: Effective aid in action