NEW YORK – February 9, 2025 – In a statement, the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) has urged parties at the preparatory meetings for the 4th Financing for Development (FfD4) to push for breakthroughs in development finance commitments, to address urgent challenges posed by multiple global crises, the derailment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the beleaguered aid system.

CPDE is an open platform that unites civil society organisations (CSOs) from six regions and seven major sectors (feminist, indigenous peoples, international CSOs, labour, migrants, rural, and youth) around the world on the issue of effective development cooperation. It participates in the CSO-FfD Mechanism under the International Development Cooperation Workstream.

“As we head towards the Seville conference, we must seize the opportunity to reset the discussion, and insist on the track that honors the foundational commitments of international cooperation,” read the statement, drafted in response to the Zero Draft of the 4th Financing for Development Outcome Document.

While recognizing the references to effectiveness principles, CPDE criticized the Draft’s lack of ambition in the areas of time-bound commitments, actionable priorities, and substantive reforms, especially involving the Official Development Assistance or ODA. According to CPDE, these simply “reaffirm existing commitments on ODA and development effectiveness principles, without raising the ambition, correcting digressions, or establishing credible mechanisms to ensure compliance.”

The civil society platform also presented three key demands for UN Member States:

1. Uphold past commitments, but push the limits on aid volume. The agreement to scale up and achieve the 0.7 gross national income (GNI) target must be restated, and an accompanying agreement on mechanisms for enforcement must be clarified. The alarming decline in the share of ODA that reaches developing countries needs to be immediately addressed, the concessional nature of ODA preserved, and alignment with the SDGs set as a precondition.
2. Revitalise effectiveness agenda to put countries in the drivers’ seat. ODA and any other form of development cooperation and development partnership must be effective, rights-based, accountable, and directed towards democratic country ownership, which includes locally-led development. A strict set of rules must be developed around how development cooperation and, in particular, ODA should be used, and fulfill its core mandate of eradicating poverty and addressing inequalities, with the development priorities set by the right-holders at the centre.
3. Define decisive mechanisms to turn commitments to change. The FfD4 can and should decide to establish a UN intergovernmental process towards agreeing on a legally binding convention on development cooperation that includes developing measurable, time-bound, and enforceable indicators for the fulfilment of these targets.

Delegates from CPDE will be in New York from 10-14 February 2025 to promote these calls, and consolidate their efforts in the lead-up to the Seville Conference in June.

The statement ends with a strong reminder for FfD stakeholders to take immediate action: “We need a breakthrough in asserting the effectiveness agenda in development finance, or we face the breakdown of our shared aspirations around sustainable development.

Visit csopartnership.org today to learn more about its engagement in the area of development finance.