ECOSOC Biennial Development Cooperation Forum (DCF)
Author: Ajoy Datta and Simon Burall
The 2005 UN World Summit mandated the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to convene a biennial high-level Development Cooperation Forum (DCF). This will review international aid trends; promote better coordination amongst aid donors; strengthen the UN’s normative and operational work; and provide policy recommendations to enhance aid effectiveness and is intended to complement the issues being discussed through the ECOSOC FfD process. Unlike the OECD, the DCF has broader political legitimacy, involving all UN Member States and a wide range of stakeholders involved in aid delivery. The DCF process hence is able to harness a wide range of inputs for a deepened and broader dialogue around the international aid agenda. The DCF should enable ECOSOC to strengthen its political oversight and monitoring of resource commitments and the quality of aid delivery. The first DCF will take place in July 2008.
The preparations for the 2008 DCF are guided by a legislative mandate expressed at the DCF launch (in July 2007). There will be two high level symposia, leading up to a high level forum in July 2008. The high-level forum will be held every two years thereafter. The symposia are modelled on the OECD Global Forum on Development. They will follow Chatham House Rules and there will be no UN outcome document; just a synthesis document instead. The first symposium took place in April 2007 and the second takes place in Cairo in January 2008.
Analytical preparations, supported by United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), will be anchored in four background studies, which in turn, will be consolidated in a Secretary-General’s report for consideration by the 2008 DCF. The findings and recommendations of the various consultative meetings and events will also contribute to the analytical preparations and vice-versa. Each background study will be guided by a set of research questions, focusing, in particular, on aspects of development cooperation considered under-exposed in order for the DCF to achieve credibility in offering innovative and alternative analysis. High quality analysis is also viewed essential if the DCF is to influence deliberations in key intergovernmental processes such as the Monterrey Follow-up Conference in Doha and the Accra High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness both of which will take place in late 2008.
In accordance with the mandate of the DCF, the background studies will review trends and progress in international development cooperation with particular emphasis on identifying gaps and obstacles to enhancing its coherence and effectiveness. The quality of analytical preparations and the consultative process is critical if the DCF is to become a principal forum for global dialogue and policy review on major development cooperation issues.
The Under-Secretary General of UNDESA has established an informal Advisory Group comprising 19 members from a wide range of organisations. It aims to coordinate and focus the dialogue with key stakeholders on the objectives and agenda of the preparatory process.
There have been tensions about what the relative roles of DCF versus FfD within the UN system, but it now appears this has been resolved with the DCF focussing on the aid relationship while the FfD will focus on broader financing.