As part of the 2023 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), close to 100 participants in-person and online attended the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) side event ‘Provoking Action: How Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships Lead to Change at Country Level’. Speakers highlighted the relevance of effective development co-operation and multi-stakeholder partnerships for development progress, while putting a spotlight on linkages between the new Global Partnership monitoring exercise and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).
H.E. Mrs. Judith Suminwa Tuluka (Minister of Planning of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Co-Chair of the GPEDC) remarked that the side event "offers us an opportunity to discuss how the new monitoring exercise helps inform VNRs and highlight the value of stronger partnerships". Ms. Marie Ottosson (GPEDC Co-Chair and Deputy Director General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)) emphasized that this event aims “to highlight how multi-stakeholder partnerships can lead to meaningful dialogue and action that catalyzes progress across the SDGs”.
In his opening remarks, H.E. Mr. Suharso Monoarfa (Minister of National Development Planning and Head of BAPPENAS, Indonesia, and fellow Co-Chair) further underlined Indonesia’s full commitment to strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for effective development co-operation, announcing a Summit on Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships to be held in 2024.
For the GPEDC, as the primary multi-stakeholder partnership for driving development effectiveness, bringing together all development co-operation stakeholders is key – including the private sector and other non-executive stakeholders. In this context, Mr. Michael Pittelkow (Economic Development Co-operation Executive at SAP) pointed to the importance of effective engagement of the private sector in development co-operation based on the Kampala Principles, including through a focus on shared value creation.
Speakers emphasized how the new Global Partnership monitoring exercise provides evidence on development effectiveness, contributing to SDG reporting as well as enhancing the quality of countries’ VNRs. Mrs. Djeneba Kouanda (Head of the Development Co-operation Department at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Forward Planning of Burkina Faso) pointed to the value for the country in participating in the monitoring exercise as an opportunity to take stock of development co-operation flows.
In addition, the GPEDC monitoring is an official source of data for three SDG indicators. Ms. Nazneen Damji (Chief a.i of the Governance and Participation Section of UN Women) shared how the organization, together with UNDP and OECD, tracks progress on SDG indicator 5.c.1 around countries’ systems to track allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Developing strong country monitoring systems allow countries to allocate resources more efficiently for gender-responsive budgeting.
In particular, the monitoring exercise and its multi-stakeholder dialogues can enhance the inclusivity of countries’ VNR processes. Quoting a recent study by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), Mr. Richard Ssewakiryanga (Co-Chair of the CPDE) emphasized that there is significant room for improvement on the inclusivity of countries’ VNR processes with regards to the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
40 partner countries – including Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia – have already confirmed their participation in the current round of the Global Partnership’s monitoring exercise. For updated information on partner countries’ participation in the monitoring exercise, please explore the GPEDC Dashboard.
Click here to watch the side event.
