How conditionalities impact development aid effectiveness More than 140 participants representing governments, multilateral organizations, aid agencies, civil society, private sector and academia converged in Cairo, Egypt this past weekend for a High-level Symposium on development cooperation and looking at ways of enhancing the impact of aid in serving the poor. This event was hosted by the Egyptian Government and supported by the United Nations.
Under the overall theme of “Trends in development cooperation: South-South and triangular cooperation and Aid effectiveness”, the Cairo High-level Symposium promoted a constructive and inclusive dialogue on development cooperation issues. Among the topics up for discussion were the different practices of attaching terms and conditions to development aid; examples of Southern development actors cooperating successfully with one another in improving development results; and current global efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of development aid.
“We need to commit ourselves, with renewed vigour, to the fight for greater equity among – and within – countries; to pursue poverty eradication, to reach all other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to ensure sustainable socio-economic progress for all,” the Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said in her remarks. “These objectives, which are at the very core of the UN's mission, call for more effective and coherent development cooperation.” Migiro stressed the commitment of the Secretary-General and herself to strengthening the development work of the United Nations through implementing the outcome of the 2005 World Summit - especially the revitalization of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and making it a quality platform for development decisions.
The Symposium was part of the preparations for the first biennial Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), which is due to take place in July 2008 in New York.
Ambassador Léo Mérorès, the newly elected President of ECOSOC said that the Development Cooperation Forum was an important response to momentous changes that have been taking place in international development cooperation. It is also expected to influence the follow-up to the Monterrey consensus at the upcoming Doha Conference on Financing for Development in 2008.
Many speakers at the Symposium recognized the complexity of aid conditionality and the need to reexamine its impact and the distortions it creates. The participants believed that the first Development Cooperation Forum will help provide a deeper understanding of these issues, the sharing of experiences and bringing stakeholders together to work out how to end distortions created by aid conditionality.
The debate showed the great potential the Development Cooperation Forum will have to generate new ideas, to carry forward reflections on improving aid architecture and on building greater coherence around the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.
Among the participants who attended the symposium in Cairo were: the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit who opened the symposium, USG for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, and UNCTAD's Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.
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