Malawi co-chairs global aid group
Malawi is co-chairing the Global Partnership and Advocate for Effective Development Cooperation (GPAEDC), an aid mobilisation tool, and is representing on the grouping all aid-recipient countries in the world.
President Peter Mutharika’s chief economic advisor, Dr Collins Magalasi, confirmed on Monday in New York that Malawi is co-chairing the grouping alongside Mexico and the Netherlands who were also chosen to represent different interests.
“In its capacity, Malawi is privileged and honoured to have been chosen to represent the interests of all aid-recipient countries. Mexico is representing emerging economies. While the Netherlands is a representative of donor nations,” said Magalasi.
The presidential economic advisor explained that the advantage that Malawi has in leading the grouping is that it will have access to the powers that be where aid mobilisation and dissemination is concerned.
“This is good for Malawi because we have the opportunity of using our position to mobilise the resources that we badly need for the poor,” he explained.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe is leading the group together with Mexico’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena and Netherlands’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen.
GPAEDC was established during the Fourth High Level Forum (HLF4) in Busan, South Korea in 2011 to ensure that development co-operation has the maximum possible impact on development results.
This new, inclusive forum brings together a wide range of countries and organisations to foster engagement, communication and knowledge sharing among development actors. It also works to maintain political support for the commitments reached in Busan.
“This is a very effective development tool. It is here where donors meet. The only difference with other forums of this nature is that here donors meet with recipient countries and share the same platform,” said Magalasi in explaining the grouping.
“And for Malawi to lead that it is not a mean achievement,” he added.
The Busan Partnership agreement invited the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to work together to provide support for the effective functioning of the Global Partnership.
The UNDP-OECD joint support team includes dedicated staff across the two organisations to provide day–to-day secretariat support for the steering committee and the ministerial-level meetings of the Global Partnership.
The Global Partnership Co-Chairs and several Steering Committee members have joined the world leaders in New York at the UN General Assembly which started on September 22, 2014.
A wide-ranging debate about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the world’s choices of what will succeed the poverty-fighting Millennium Development Goals next year – will be on centre stage at the last UN General Assembly before 2015.
As a key tool to turn the post-2015 development agenda into action, the Global Partnership will draw attention to the “how” of implementing the SDGs in an effective way by using multi-stakeholder development partnerships and how they can be made more effective.
It will also focus on the private sector as a crucial player to boost development.
The Global Partnership will host two side events during the current 69th session of the UN General Assembly:
“Action 2015: How Can The Private Sector Help Deliver The Sustainable Development Goals?” This will take place on September 24 2014
Hosted by Ploumen, in collaboration with the UN Foundation and Unilever, this event will outline the role of business in sustainable development.
High level representatives of companies, governments and global business organisations will include chief executive officer of Unilever, Paul Polman, and president and chief executive officer of the UN Foundation.
The second event will be: “How to make it happen: Shaping International Development Cooperation for the effective implementation of the Post-2015 development framework”
This will happen in Conference Room 6, General Assembly building on September 26.
Hosted by co-chairs, José Antonio Meade and Ploumen, this event will highlight the role Global Partnership can play in implementing the post-2015 development objectives.
Gina Casar, associate UNDP Administrator; Ted Chu, International Finance Corporation chief economist and Huguette Labelle, Transparency International chairperson will be in attendance.
—Munthali is reporting from the UN in New York, USA
