Improving the quality and quantity of development cooperation is critical to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) was set up in 2011 to coordinate global action on development cooperation. The IPU represents the global parliamentary community on the Steering Committee of the GPEDC, which held its 13th session on 23-24 April in Washington, DC.
The meeting adopted an ambitious programme of work for 2017-2018, which includes more emphasis on implementing development cooperation commitments at the country level and greater engagement with the public sector.
The IPU will participate in the programme by strengthening parliaments’ capacities to oversee development cooperation and implement global commitments. This work will be informed by the Parliamentary Statement to the high-level meeting of the GPEDC in Nairobi in December 2016. The Steering Committee Meeting was a follow-up to the Nairobi meeting, where a new vision for development cooperation was adopted.
The GPEDC brings together all stakeholders of development cooperation—which includes all aid from public and private sources, financial and non-financial—to improve the effectiveness of aid from the point of origin to the point of delivery in developing countries. Other members of the GPEDC Steering Committee include representatives from governments, local authorities, civil society, private sector and foundations.