The conclusive meeting of the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (Wp-Eff) last week has been an important event for international development cooperation, marking an effective shift towards the new working structure under the Global Partnership agreement.
Throughout the Post Busan Interim Process and including the final discussion at the WP-Eff, the voices of civil society as an equal and independent development actor were represented by the BetterAid co-chairs.
Now that the final Wp-Eff event is behind is, here is a piece on civil society impressions and reactions by BetterAid that summarizes the civil society statement to the WP-Eff.
Final Meeting of WP-EFF Came to A Close: Civil Society Question Inclusiveness of the Process
by BetterAid
Read the full text of the CSO STATEMENT TO THE WORKING PARTY JUNE 29, 2012
(Also refer to the Civil Society Position and Asks ahead of the meeting )
As negotiations for a Post-Busan governance structure and monitoring framework were finalized last Friday in Paris, civil society expressed deep concern over the process undertaken by the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WP-Eff), the multi-stakeholder forum responsible for leading global processes that produced the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), Paris Declaration (PD) and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (BPd). In a statement read by BetterAid Co-Chairs, Antonio Tujan and Mayra Moro-Coco, civil society expressed doubt over the consensus reached after Day 1 especially after suggestions raised by the various groups - such as civil society, NEPAD and CARICOM - were rejected, “ it is not a Global Partnership interested in generating consensus and compromise among the range of stakeholders - whether others or us ”.
The 35 civil society representatives who kept watch of the proceedings through the OECD Listening Room observed that there was very little opportunity to debate changes to the proposed monitoring and governance framework drafted by the Post Busan Interim Group and the two-day final meeting became more of a farewell of sorts as the WP-Eff ends and the Global Partnership begins.
The statement adds that civil society will consult with their respective constituencies to determine the basis of future engagement of civil society with the Global Partnership. The statement also emphasized civil society’s commitment to the spirit and principles of Busan, " For us [civil society], that means moving beyond paternalism and power imbalances to inclusive partnership and mutual respect ”.
At the final meeting of the WP-Eff, Andrew Mitchell, UK International Development Secretary, was named one of the three Co-Chairs of the Global Partnership. The other two co-chairs, one from an emerging economy and the other from partner country, as well as the 18 members of the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership will be identified by end of July. Civil society is allotted one seat in the Steering Committee.
In terms of monitoring the Global Partnership, a set of 10 indicators were approved with the following focus:
- Indicator 1. Development co-operation is focused on results that meet developing countries’ priorities
- Indicator 2. Civil society operates within an environment that maximises its engagement in and contribution to development
- Indicator 3. Engagement and contribution of the private sector to development
- Indicator 4. Transparency: information on development co-operation is publicly available
- Indicator 5a. Development co-operation is more predictable (annual predictability)
- Indicator 5b. Development co-operation is more predictable (medium-term predictability)
- Indicator 6. Aid is on budgets which are subject to parliamentary scrutiny
- Indicator 7. Mutual accountability among co-operation actors is strengthened through inclusive reviews
- Indicator 8. Gender equality and women’s empowerment
- Indicator 9a. Quality of developing country PFM systems
- Indicator 9b. Use of country PFM and procurement systems
- Indicator 10. Aid is untied
The first six months after the 4th High Level Forum in Busan, South Korea, was devoted to developing proposals on the Post-Busan governance and monitoring framework. A group, called the Post-Busan Interim Group (PBIG), was mandated to develop the proposals for the two important components of the work Post-Busan. These proposals were presented for endorsement to the members of the WP-Eff during its final meeting in Paris last 28-29 July 2012.
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