This feature is based on AWID’s recent Friday File interviewing Anne Schoenstein and Natalie Raaber from AWID who attended the UN DCF in New York this June. It has been adapted and updated by BetterAid for the purposes of this website. You can access the original Friday File here.
Spotlight issue- the UN DCF
In late June 2010, the second biennial Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) took place at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.
What is the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF)?
The DCF is a body mandated by the UN General Assembly (GA) at the 2005 World Summit. It is one of the new functions of a strengthened Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and works to support and enhance the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals (IADGs), including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The first biennial DCF (in 2008) focused on reviewing the trends and progress made in international development cooperation, including discussing issues around the coherence of development activities. This means that one development activity does not undermine another and that all activities should support and ensure human rights. This year, the DCF addressed “Development Cooperation in Times of Crises: New Commitments to Reach the MDGs.”
Why is the DCF an important space?
The UN is currently the only international organization that is fully multilateral, inclusive and participatory. The DCF is open to governments, international organizations, local authorities and CSOs. Unlike the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Group of 20, the UN offers both developing and developed countries equal representation.
Furthermore, as the world continues to face multiple and interlinked crises, all governments have a responsibility to find lasting solutions to the challenges posed by poverty and inequality, among other issues.
While development aid is very important at times like these, the current international aid architecture has not facilitated sustainable development or the realization of human rights or gender equality. In fact, in its current configuration, international development cooperation has, more often than not, undermined national development and human rights, including women’s human rights. The DCF, grounded in the normative UN framework of human rights, offers a space to discuss these issues holistically, moving beyond the current aid effectiveness debates – which often only focus on the technical aspects of aid delivery and management. Development cooperation (of which aid is only one part) should be in line with and fulfill human rights, including women’s human rights; its impact on the human rights of all people must be the focus..[1]
Why is the DCF relevant for BetterAid members and other civil society organizations (CSOs)?
To achieve this urgently needed reform of the current development cooperation framework, it is absolutely necessary that CSOs, including women’s groups, are meaningfully involved, ensuring that their voices, local and regional experiences and alternative solutions are integrated into discussions, standard-setting and policy making around development. CSOs can also share information from international level back to regional, national and local levels, supporting the advocacy work and watchdog roles of others at all levels.
What were particularly important points of debate at the DCF?
As the recent WWG on FfD statement to the DCF notes, “issues in development cooperation cannot be isolated from the larger policy context of trade, investments, monetary and external debt, including fiscal stimulus and austerity measures.” While policy coherence was discussed, most speakers did not clearly align the discussion with a human rights framework or refer to key women’s rights documents such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) when discussing it – so there is much work to do here.
There was also a focus on South-South development cooperation (SSDC) – with intense discussion on its role, particularly vis-à-vis North-South (NS) cooperation. SSDC has the potential to strengthen broader south-south cooperation and to promote alternative visions of development. However, it will be important to guard against perpetuating the same problems/unequal power relations that NS cooperation has produced.
Finally, we also heard potentially problematic comments on aid as a catalyst to boost growth and support the creation of new markets without explicitly referring to the fact that aid must focus on poverty eradication, sustainable development, the achievement of the IADGs and the realization and affirmation of human rights.
What outcome did the conference have?
As it currently is set up, the DCF does not produce a negotiated outcome document. There is, however, an official summary by the President of the DCF, the key messages of which will feed into the Millennium Development Goal Summit in September 2010.
The summary by the President:
- Recognises that while parliaments are fundamental hubs in any accountability process, an enabling environment is also required to enable civil society to engage.
- Recognises the important role of policy coherence for development and that “there has been relatively little progress in ensuring coherence between development cooperation and “beyond-aid” policies on trade, investment or technology.”
- Calls for an acceleration of progress towards the implementation of the Paris Declaration’s targets and of the Accra Agenda for Action, and stresses that national ownership and leadership is of fundamental importance.
- Calls on donor countries to abide by the commitments on ODA targets endorsed over the past few years.
- Proposes that public funding for climate change needs to be 100% additional to the ODA
- Emphasises the need to develop innovative sources of development financing, including a tax on financial flows and a carbon tax.
- Acknowledges the benefits and outlined further steps for promoting South-South cooperation.
A ‘word cloud’ generated from the UN DCF’s president’s long summary of the UN DCF, New York. Words that appear more frequently in the summary appear more prominently in the cloud.
What happens next?
At the UN MDG summit in September there will be a UN DCF side event at which an International Development Cooperation report will be released. In the coming months the DCF will be examining its processes as well as the content/issues on which it will focus in the upcoming phase (2011-2012). There are proposals to increase the frequency and hold annual DCFs rather then bi-annual, the introduction of official (negotiated) outcome documents is discussed; and mechanisms for civil society involvement need to be clarified.) It appears that policy coherence and mutual accountability will remain as key themes and SSDC will move more into focus. The UNDCF is planning two symposia- one at the end of 2010 and one at the second quarter of 2011.
How are CSOs engaging with the DCF?
CSOs are currently engaged in the DCF through the Advisory Group (AG) and the DCF CSO task force. BetterAid is part of this task force. Concerning the AG, currently CSOs are represented through CIVICUS and ActionAid, acting on behalf of BetterAid. The DCF CSO task force is currently drafting a document containing recommendations to the UNDCF for their future process and content.
Read the WWG on FfD statement for the DCF
See BetterAid’s statement to the DCF
Read BA’s press releases released at the 2010 DCF:
Civil society challenges the UN to deliver where the G8 and G20 have failed on aid commitments
Source: BetterAid