Major transformations are challenging existing development approaches. New partnerships are needed to address issues like climate change, inequality, and sustainable development. Development is non-linear and countries require flexible support along their journey. Official development assistance remains important but must work with other resources and adjust to countries' changing needs. Partnerships themselves are also changing with more actors involved. Development cooperation's role is to ensure all partners align behind global goals and public goods. New approaches and narratives are needed to leave no one behind.

1. CONCEPT NOTE FOR SESSION 1
SHARING VIEWS ON NEW TRENDS AND APPROACHES FOR THE
FUTURE OF DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION: DEVELOPMENT IN
TRANSITION & MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIPS
Paris, France | 21 February 2019
1) Major transformations call for new narratives for development co-operation
In the past three decades, the pace of change in the world economy has accelerated with the diffusion of new
technologies, and the reach of new critical thresholds for human demography and its environmental footprint.
Growth of inequalities, within and among nations, combined with shifting geopolitical strategies, call for a re-
thinking of the objectives and means of development co-operation. Global population, to reach 9 billion by
2050, will challenge how we, collectively, will manage resources. Conflicts have spread, with more people
displaced for economic or political reasons. Climate change, as a “threat multiplier”, will remain a source of
severe adverse effects on food security, water availability, and health, as well as contribute to the more
frequent occurrence of natural disasters affecting coastal regions and small island developing states in
particular. Demand for energy will increase significantly: by 2030, 670 million people will still have no access
to electricity – 90% of whom will live in Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, Africa will be the only remaining region
experiencing population growth and could reach 40% of the world population. Urbanisation, with a growing
number of megacities, will increasingly affect the developing world, with some 2.5 billion additional people
living in cities by 2050, and a share of world’s population living in urban areas growing from 54% to 66%.
Are our development cooperation policies fit to address these challenges?
The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) provided a framework to finance these efforts calling on a wide range
of actors, domestic and foreign, public and private, to join forces towards the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). However, the 2019 Global Outlook on Financing for Sustainable Development
showed that the international community was falling short of its ambitions. Domestic resources (USD 4.3
trillion in 2017) still need to be mobilized, with LDCs and LICs below the 15% tax to GDP ratio recommended
by the IMF, calling for further technical assistance and capacity building. External resources have been
declining in the past few years, with a 12% drop between 2013-16, and more recent drop of 30% in Foreign
Direct Investment (USD 750 billion in 2017) to developing countries over 2016-17. At the same time, Official
Development Assistance (ODA) has been steady (USD 146.6 billion in 2017), remittances (USD 466 billion in
2017) and philanthropy growing (USD 8 billion per annum between 2013-15).
While representing a small share of total cross-border finance, ODA is key for resilience and stability, bringing
unique features in terms of accessibility, predictability and focus. It can be used to leverage other resources
and shift the trillions available in the system to match with SDGs financing needs. Hence, development co-
operation is not only a source of finance, but also a policy tool to promote innovation, a better governance

2. and orientation of other types of finance, transfers of all kinds – from technology to know-how, and new forms
of multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Development co-operation is uniquely positioned to ensure no one is left behind, with enough flexibility in the
variety of tools and mechanisms to build resilience of early support and preserve solidarity all along the
development continuum of development partners. The 2030 Agenda is a blueprint for all countries. While
each nation is responsible for its own sustainable development, the integrated nature of the Sustainable
Development Goals, and the need to promote global public goods and address global challenges to sustainable
development, require joint efforts to ensure that “the Goals and targets are met for all nations and peoples
and for all segments of society.”1
2) Dispelling myths and implementing new narratives together
Development is not linear: the risks of socio-economic setbacks, whether prompted by political, economic or
natural shocks, call for a continuous observation and support as countries move along the development
continuum.
From a financial perspective, the potential of a truly holistic approach to financing the 2030 Agenda has
remained untapped, and in the absence of a systemic change, the international community runs the risk of
defaulting on its promise. As countries transition along the development continuum, they gain and loose
access to different sources and forms of finance, which articulate differently: typically, domestic and private
resources increase as ODA phases out. Some milestones of this journey are more formal than others, triggered
by indicators such as income level, but not only (e.g. LDC status). Work on transition finance explores the
challenges and opportunities of a holistic approach to financing sustainable development, focusing on
maximizing interactions for impact and resilience, taking into account country- and sector-specific contexts.
The analysis suggests there are a number of tipping points where different sources of finance become more
or less prevalent, and transition finance gaps or surpluses – measuring net financing gains or losses when
countries transition. Building resilience is anticipating and accompanying those substitutions, ensuring a
smooth transition without gaps that would trigger setbacks – for example, avoiding passing from full reliance
on ODA for the health sector to a system without domestic health capacities or markets. ODA has to be used
strategically with transition in mind.
For that purpose, development co-operation needs to be continuously adjusted to the country’s needs as it
moves along the development continuum and potentially faces shocks that could break the linearity of its
development process. This adjustment is multi-dimensional, encompassing amounts engaged, types of
instruments and modalities, articulation of different flows, partnerships with other actors, etc. Recently
conducted country pilots by the OECD/DCD (Cabo Verde, Zambia, Uganda), as well as upcoming ones (to
include Chile, Uruguay, Lebanon and Vietnam), aim to draw policy recommendations that will be compiled,
and will supplement a toolkit for transition finance to help anticipate and mitigate the effects of major
transition milestones.
As development cooperation moves from the “hard” (financing) to the “soft” (other kinds of transfers and
cooperation), or a blend thereof, solidarity remains, including in the achievement of the goals and support to
global public goods. ODA is most needed at the beginning of the transition journey because access to other
sources of finance is limited, but solidarity should remain throughout the journey. Anticipation is key: for
example, when countries transition from concessional to non-concessional finance, they need to be prepared
to identifying the right financing mechanisms and partners, and negotiating the right terms to manage risks
(e.g. debt sustainability).
1
United Nations, 2015, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. para 4.

3. 3) Partnering for change
Development cooperation is a partnership for change. The partnership itself changes. As the number of actors
in the system increases, their role becomes increasingly complex. New forms of partnerships raise new
opportunities and challenges, calling for a dialogue of communities and innovative and inclusive approaches.
Where development co-operation was once largely the preserve of donor governments, developing country
recipients and non-governmental organisations, there are now a growing number of actors, taking a range of
approaches to development co-operation. This growing diversity of actors has sparked calls for different types
of multi-stakeholder partnerships to address increasingly complex sustainable development challenges.
What is then the role for governments and public actors in this multi-stakeholder world? What is the role and
value added of development cooperation policies?
Development cooperation’s role is to ensure that all partners align to contribute to global sustainable goals
and public goods. Addressing collectively agreed constraints will require champions and oftentimes a coalition
of the willing. Actions taken by one country can constrain the ability of others to achieve sustainable
development. It therefore behoves all countries to consider the transboundary impacts of their policies and
regulations. This calls for development ministries and agencies to play a role in bringing instances of
incoherence to the attention of other parts of government and working to ensure greater policy coherence
for sustainable development at national and international levels. This is particularly true in the context of
climate action. The Paris Agreement recognises the fundamental relationship between climate change,
sustainable development and poverty eradication. The OECD-led initiative on “Aligning Development Co-
operation with the Objectives of the Paris Agreement” is an opportunity to rethink how institutional models
and policies respond to climate scenarios. Ultimately strengthening the role of development co-operation to
support action in countries where global warming will most impede the achievability of the SDGs by updating
how we react to the climate challenge.
Public policies remain a key determinant of securing inclusiveness and reducing inequalities to achieve the
SDGs. It also requires development co-operation actors to re-think approaches to development co-operation
to ensure that it is fit-for-purpose and leaves no one behind.
Questions
• Are our development co-operation policies and instruments fit to support countries’ sustainable
development path?
• How to promote coalitions of the willing to tackle today’s global challenges and to provide global
public goods?
• How to work together to improve the global system and create a development narrative where no
one is left behind?