2nd High Level Meeting Comes to an End

The 2nd High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation came to a close on Thursday with calls to governments to focus their policies to empowering women and youth in order to achieve the agenda for Sustainable Development.

The 5-day meeting ,which kicked off from 29 November-2nd December 2016 took an intensive look on areas that included, stock of the implementation of development effectiveness principles and commitments, providing a learning space on development effectiveness, showcasing successful examples; identifying innovative approaches to sustainable development that can be scaled up; and positioning the Global Partnership to effectively contribute to implementation of the SDGs and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

The High-Level Meeting came in at a critical juncture, a moment of reviewing the evidence and lessons learned from a decade’s attempts to implement the aid and development effectiveness agendas, and to look ahead to the role of effectiveness in the new era of sustainable development anchored in Agenda 2030.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who officially opened the meeting on Wednesday said that the world can achieve prosperity by empowering women, youth and other neglected sections of society, urging governments across the globe to focus their policies to empowering women and youth in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“When I assumed the leadership of Kenya, my administration deliberately chose to champion the economic empowerment of women and youth, in recognition of the potential economic and social benefits we stand to achieve in our society by giving these two groups the requisite support,” said the President.

The President had noted that Kenya has put the interest of women and youth above the interest of other sectors of society, stating that the most neglected sections of the population are usually women, youth, people living with disabilities and children. He said having a development plan that covers all sections of society will ensure acceleration of growth and eradication of extreme poverty.

This happened to be the first time that the meeting was held in Africa, with the aim of renewing commitments to increasing the effectiveness of development cooperation.

Other speakers who took part in the meeting included Malawi’s Finance, Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe, Netherlands Foreign Trade and Development Co-operation Minister Lilliane Ploumen, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu Salinas and United Nations Under Secretary-General Wu Hongbo, who read UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s message, among others.

The Global Partnership on Effective Development Cooperation is a multi-stakeholder partnership that brings together governments, international organizations, civil society, parliamentarians, foundations and the private sector in a shared purpose to boost development impact through the implementation of the internationally agreed effectiveness principles

The pending meeting is also an opportunity to influence development ministries and practitioners on their approach to support for domestic resource mobilization. It is to this end that this event is focused, to highlight the range of potential actions available to support Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) in Africa in the coming years.

Related: Africa Optimistic of Future in Partnership with TICAD