1. We value our inclusion as equals at the HLF-4 negotiating table alongside governments and donors; expect to replicate this practice at national levels, welcome the opportunity to join world leaders, governments, donors, parliamentarians, private sector and international institutions to forge a new consensus on effective aid and development effectiveness at the upcoming HLF-4; and note that there are outstanding issues of utmost importance that must be resolved in order to strengthen democratic ownership and true commitment to the final Busan Outcome Document;
2. We reaffirm our role as development actors in our own right, playing a vital role in advancing development effectiveness in order to achieve human rights, gender equality, social justice, decent work, environmental sustainability, peace and an end to corruption and impunity within a solid framework of democratic governance, rights-based approaches, and inclusive policy engagement;
Paris and Accra
3. We note with concern that donors and partner governments have failed to deliver on the majority of their pledges made in the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action. This has left unfinished business that must now be completed through bold decisions that outline time-bound and ambitious targets;
We call on donor and partner governments to:
- Implement fully and quickly their commitments from Paris and Accra
- Advance on and boldly deepen commitments on untied aid, transparency through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard, accountability and conditionality
- Utilise and strengthen the capacity of country systems, parliaments and local governments.
- Advance the Paris and Accra agendas through strong mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of deliverables, results and outcomes that are based on human rights norms and standards
- Ensure their own accountability to people.
Development and Rights Based Approaches
4. We underscore our conviction that development is not only about economic growth, which on its own has failed to deliver on development outcomes and has too often failed to address poverty, inequalities and environmental degradation. Development is about fulfilling the rights and needs of people and addressing the causes and the symptoms of poverty, inequality and marginalization.
We call upon all development actors to:
- Implement development cooperation in ways that are consistent with international agreements on human rights, norms, and standards;
- Adopt rights-based policies and approaches that:
- are non-discriminatory;
- empower the poor, rural people, indigenous people and other marginalized groups to claim all their rights;
- guarantee sustainable and equitable development outcomes;
- promote democratic ownership, decent work, gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment;
Private Sector
5. While taking note of the potential contribution of the private sector to development, their engagement should be premised on advancing the implementation of development effectiveness and so:
We call on all governments to:
- Recognise social partners as development actors and the need for regulation and adherence to international human rights, norms and standards such as the International Labour Standards
- Recognize the role of CSOs in shaping private sector engagement in development.
- Ensure that the private sector, when participating in development cooperation and programs, is accountable for its contribution to development outcomes
- Guarantee that public funds to the private sector adhere to standards of development effectiveness as well as an evaluation of the risks and potentials of the private sector’s engagement
We call on the private sector to:
- Ensure development effectiveness while adhering to but not being limited to the implementation of existing international labour standards and international conventions.
Enabling Environment
6. As civil society, since Accra, we have developed for our guidance the Istanbul Principles and the Siem Reap Consensus on the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness. Through this framework we commit to improve our own practices and will strengthen our transparency and accountability as well as our contribution to development effectiveness. However, we are confronted with the reality that civil society space has been shrinking despite Accra, and thus:
We call upon governments to:
- Ensure minimum standards that guarantee an enabling environment for civil society organisations to fulfil their development roles, at a minimum, in keeping with binding commitments, both in law and in practice, outlined in international and regional instruments that guarantee fundamental rights.
Global Partnership (Aid Architecture)
7. We call for a development cooperation architecture that more effectively promotes equity, justice and a rights based approach to development; considers the present reality of medium and low income countries as providers and recipients of cooperation; guarantees full and genuine multi-stakeholder participation; and deepens the accountability of all actors for meeting their development commitments. We fully support a Global Partnership for Development Effectiveness that pursues these goals, and affirm that the full details of this partnership must be negotiated by June 2012.
We urge all developments actors to support a Global Partnership that:
- Rationalises the governance framework in order to eliminate duplication and fragmentation while enhancing harmonisation and coordination;
- Creates a forum for inclusive, legitimate, democratic and transparent discussions and decision making on aid and development effectiveness of cooperation;
- Guarantees mechanisms for inclusive participation of CSOs in South-South Cooperation, realizing the vital contributions we bring to the process;
- Ensures the full participation of civil society as equals in national and global negotiations and processes, promote leadership of local actors, making aid and development more transparent, reliable and effective;
- Establishes a strong monitoring mechanism, with indicators and targets to assess progress building on and improving existing aid effectiveness and development indicators and accountability mechanisms, especially Human Rights conventions such as but not limited to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
- Commits to implement the New Deal in Fragile States with special attention to peoples participation.
With the aforementioned, we hereby reaffirm our resolve to work in new partnership with all development actors for a better just and fair world.
Busan, Republic of Korea
28 November, 2011