The 4th Biennial High-level Meeting of the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) was held on 10 - 11 July 2014 at the UN headquarters in New York. The meeting took place as part of the High-level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The 2014 DCF provided key inputs to the post-2015 development agenda. It contributed to a new narrative for development cooperation and suggestions for a robust monitoring and accountability framework for development cooperation in a post-2015 context.
The findings of the 2014 DCF were distilled in a summary by the President of the Economic and Social Council, providing a distinct contribution to policy makers and practitioners in ensuring their development cooperation efforts will support implementation of a post-2015 development agenda.
The outcome of the 2014 DCF also served as a key input for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.
- 2014 DCF Summary
- Statements and Presentations
- Side events
- Video clips from the 2014 DCF
- Recordings of main sessions
- One-pager
- Programme
- 2014 Report of the Secretary-General on Trends and Progress in International Development Cooperation
Media Coverage
Official DPI Meeting Coverage on the 2014 DCF
- Day 1 "Speakers call for new development cooperation strategies in post-2015 agenda, as Economic and Social Council commences Forum"
- Day 2 "Building partnerships, moving sustainable development to forefront among top issues debated, as Economic and Social Council concludes High-level Segment
United Nations Press Release on the 2014 DCF
United Nations News Article on the 2014 DCF
Engaging all actors in development cooperation
The 2014 DCF engaged the range of stakeholders in an open and inclusive policy dialogue. Donors and programme countries, Southern partners, civil society, philanthropic foundations, members of Parliament, local and regional authorities, private sector and international organizations participated in the Forum. At the two-day meeting, participants examined how development cooperation will need to change to support implementation of a post-2015 development agenda.
Focusing on concrete objectives and issues
The 2014 Forum had four key objectives:
- Assess how a global partnership for development beyond 2015 could work in practice.
- Examine implications of a post-2015 development agenda for development cooperation.
- Identify ways to enhance national and global accountability and effective monitoring of development cooperation.
- Advance policy dialogue and concrete actions by Southern development cooperation partners on commons issues and challenges.
The 2014 DCF developed policy recommendations on these and a range of other key issues, such as: aid quantity and quality; the critical role of ODA in development cooperation post-2015; ensuring the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation; advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women; and a number of specific trends on flows, approaches and actors in DCF side events.
Comprehensive analysis and multi-stakeholder preparations
The two-year preparatory process for the Forum combined analytical work in these areas with stakeholder engagement and high-level policy dialogue:
- A renewed global partnership for development for a post-2015 era, DCF Ethiopia High-level Symposium (5-7 June 2013) )
- Development cooperation in a post-2015 era: Sustainable development for all, DCF Switzerland High-level Symposium (24-25 October 2013) on
- Accountable and effective development cooperation in a post-2015 era, DCF Germany High-level Symposium (20-21 March 2014)
- Meetings among South-South Development Cooperation Partners (Delhi, India, April 2013; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 2013; Istanbul, Turkey, December 2013; Berlin, Germany, March 2014; and Mexico City, Mexico, April 2014).
- Special Policy Dialogues on:
- The role of development cooperation in advancing gender equality (Vienna, December 2012)
- Shaping the role of philanthropic organizations in the post-2015 setting (New York, April 2013)
- Decentralized Development Cooperation (Rabat, October 2013)
2014 Report of the Secretary-General on Trends and Progress in International Development Cooperation
The report provides an overview of the two-year preparatory process for the 2014 DCF and highlights the necessity of a new narrative for development cooperation that fits the emerging post-2015 development agenda. It reviews trends on the progress of international development cooperation with particular emphasis on Official Development Assistance (ODA) as well as trends in other sources of development cooperation, principles of the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation and South-South development cooperation. The report also explores features of a renewed global partnership for development and how it could work in practice post-2015, ways to strengthen mutual accountability and availability of useable information, looking ahead to a global monitoring and accountability framework for post-2015.
Programme for the 2014 DCF
The programme was designed to engage multi-stakeholder participants in a candid policy dialogue and to generate recommendations. The aim was to inject messages and concrete proposals on the future of development cooperation into the emerging post-2015 agenda.
The programme featured the key messages from the DCF preparatory process and a number of reports, including from the Joint Event of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council “The role of partnerships in the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda”, the meetings of the Core Groups of Southern Partners, and the First Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.
The thematic sessions addressed the following topics: aid quantity and quality, the engagement of the diversity of development cooperation actors and implications of this at country level, South-South cooperation, as well as mutual accountability and transparency, and global monitoring and accountability for development cooperation. The thematic sessions culminated in a session on a new narrative for development cooperation.