Opinion
Global partnership and Nepal
Nexus between development cooperation and sustainable development challenges cannot be ignored anymoreTilakman Singh Bhandari
The Paris Declaration of 2005 is regarded as a milestone in the global aid effectiveness agenda. The Declaration articulated five central pillars of aid effectiveness, namely, ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results, and mutual accountability. Importantly, it also introduced specific implementation measures and established a process for monitoring progress against joint commitments—by both aid providers and recipients to each of the five pillars. Subsequently, three rounds of Paris Declaration monitoring were conducted globally: in 2006, 2008 and 2011.
Over time, the global aid architecture and the dialogue around it have seen a paradigm shift, from a limited view of the aid relationship as between the recipients and the providers of aid, to one which has shifted from ‘aid’ to ‘development cooperation’ and recognises the roles of a range of stakeholders. This paradigm shift was realised through the creation of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), at the 2011 Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, in Busan.
The GPEDC is a multi-stakeholder platform to advance the effectiveness of development efforts by all actors, to deliver results that are long-lasting and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It provides a global platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange and learning, seeking to strengthen mutual accountability for development cooperation in general and the aid relationship in particular. The Global Partnership is based on a set of principles that recognises the indispensability of national ownership; inclusive development; recognition of the different and complementary roles of all actors; partnerships aligned to priority results
set by developing countries; and increased transparency and mutual accountability.
The Global Partnership monitoring framework consists of ten indicators focusing on strengthening partner countries’ institutions, increasing the transparency and predictability of development resources, enhancing gender equality and supporting greater involvement of civil society, parliaments and the private sector in development efforts.
The GPEDC monitoring was first conducted in 2014, with the second round conducted in 2016. The third round is
currently underway and will be completed in December 2018. There are 68 countries including Nepal participating in this monitoring exercise. This exercise is a global, country-led and voluntary process. It is expected to generate evidence for identifying success factors, sharing lessons and facilitating mutual learning to accelerate efforts to deliver on the SDGs by 2030.
In Nepal, which has participated in all three rounds of GPEDC monitoring, the Ministry of Finance leads the exercise and collects data from stakeholders on the ten indicators using a questionnaire developed for use globally. Following initial data collection, the Ministry of Finance also facilitates the in-country consultation and validation process by convening representatives from various stakeholder groups to discuss the results.
As this is the third year of SDG implementation, it is time to think afresh about the relationship between effective development cooperation and sustainable development challenges. To this end, stock taking through the global monitoring exercise will help to strengthen coordination between all partners and better align development efforts with national priorities.
As Nepal is also a member of the steering committee of the GPEDC, participation in this monitoring round is an opportunity to share its country-led progress on global development cooperation commitments.The results of the monitoring exercise will provide reflections on whether Nepal is strengthening its national results framework and the degree to which development partners are using this framework. They will offer insights on how far development partners are using country systems to disburse their aid, whether there is an enabling environment for civil society, the quality of public-private dialogue in the development process, and the level of transparency and mutual accountability in development cooperation.
In addition, Nepal’s participation in the monitoring exercise provides an opportunity for evidence-based discussion among all partners on key principles of effective development cooperation and allows for tracking Nepal’s progress so far. It also allows for benchmarking Nepal against other partner countries, using globally comparable common indicators, and for learning from other countries’ experiences in turn. Participation in the monitoring is an opportunity to evaluate Nepal’s collaborative efforts to increase ownership and accountability, and prioritise actions to strengthen national progress on key development cooperation principles in the days to come. By participating in this global exercise, Nepal will be able to ensure that its own country context is reflected in the global analysis and inform ongoing global policy dialogue on effective development cooperation.
Bhandari is associated with Aid Management Platform (AMP) in the Ministry of Finance.