OECD/DAC Global Forum on Development
By Ajoy Datta and Simon Burall
The OECD Global Forum on Development (GFD) was created in mid-2006 to improve the co-ordination, visibility and impact of the OECD’s development-related work, and to improve dialogue between OECD member and non-member economies. The Global Forum process, which consists of a series of events including informal experts’ workshops, policy workshops and annual plenary meetings, has devoted its first three-year cycle to ‘development finance’. Four major themes for discussion, emerged from a preliminary workshop in 2006: 1) how can the present aid system be understood better, 2) How can the extent of developing countries ownership of their aid policies and commitments be improved, 3) how can aid instruments be designed to respond to diverse development scenarios and 4) what are the options for reform of the international aid architecture.
Each year, a different theme is addressed around a series of events. Forum participants include policy makers from OECD and developing countries, research institutions and think tanks, international organisations, regional development banks, technical development agencies, foundations, private sector and civil society organisations. However, participation in Forum events is by invitation only. The OECD holds a high level plenary meeting every year to discuss the outcomes of the previous year’s workshops around the year’s theme. This then feeds into the annual high level meeting of the DAC.
The first forum was held in April 2007 on the ‘Evolving Landscape of Development Finance: Managing Complexity’. Around 200 participants were invited. Key elements of the discussion included the emergence of new actors and emerging economies as providers of development finance and assistance; the institutional coherence and evaluation of the multilateral development finance system; and the major challenges for development policy makers in shaping a more effective development finance system.
The Global Forum for Development’s current theme is Operationalising Ownership ending in a plenary in April 2008, which will also provide inputs to the HLF-3 process. Additionally, the OECD Development Centre has formed the Development Finance Network (DEFINE), composed of Northern and Southern research institutes to feed into this process. ODI sits on the steering committee of DEFINE and there is potential for FFA partners and members to engage in the network as well as directly with the Global Forum.