The last meeting of the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness took place in Paris on 28 and 29 June. Following the commitments adopted in the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, the meeting laid the foundation of the Global Partnership on Effective Development Cooperation, marking a new phase in the development effectiveness agenda. UCLG and FOGAR (the Organization of United Regions) were represented by the VNG International, as secretariat of the UCLG CIB Working Group, and the Government of Catalonia, Spain.
Approximately 280 participants attended the meeting, representing donor and recipient countries, international institutions and representatives of different stakeholders (civil society, parliamentarians, private sector and local authorities).
The meeting approves the structure of the Global Partnership that will be supported by the OECD and UNDP and will consist of a Ministerial meeting, taking place every 2 years (the first to be organized in the 1st quarter of 2013) and a Steering Committee of 18 members, which will meet regularly. Besides, an online platform will provide for a space of interaction and exchange. It also adopted a global monitoring framework to measure the progress of the Busan commitments.
Although the composition of the Steering Committee is based on a constituency-based approach, local and regional governments have not been granted membership to the Committee.
UCLG and FOGAR issued a joint statement denouncing the exclusion of local and regional authorities despite the Busan Partnership Commitments which recognizes the critical role of local and regional governments in assuring broad based democratic ownership of country development agendas. Both organizations urge the members of the newly appointed Steering Committee to revise this decision and grant our constituency a full membership. To access to the UCLG-FOGAR statement click here.