Eleven Elements for a Post-2015 Agenda

This blog by Charlotte Demuijnck, provides an overview of the OECD’s input on the Post-2015 agenda and framework. This OECD Overview paper on post-2015 is the first in a series that will outline the Organisation’s position on the global debate in the lead up to the UN General Assembly in September 2013. This post is part of the Wikiprogress Post-2015 series.

This Overview paper, Beyond theMillennium Development Goals:Towards an OECD contribution to the post-2015agenda, outlines the OECD’s involvement in the global transition beyond the MDGs. This preliminary proposal is not intended to be an exhaustive and complete list of OECD contributions but rather a reflection that will help the readers gain understanding of the OECD’s starting point in its participation in the global debate. A series of detailed papers will follow shortly.

In this paper, the OECD acknowledges that “times have changed” and the new global context is characterised by new actors, new resources, a different distribution of growth as well as growing inequalities and a changing geography of poverty.

Against this background, the OECD focuses on eleven elements to help adapt to these new realities in a meaningful and effective way. The need is emphasised for a two-level approach; unlike the MDG framework, the new development agenda should not only be aimed at the global and universal level with limited goals and targets but also at the national level with specific targets adapted to the capacities of countries.

The eleven elements include both outcomes and tools. The outcomes focus around achievements in poverty reduction, educational success, gender and sustainability.

The six tools are the “means to achieve the outcomes” and include “development enablers” such as strengthening the national statistical systems and accountability mechanisms, improving policy coherence (for instance, trade policy versus aid policy), adapting the formation and distribution of knowledge, as local, evidence-based and peer-reviewed knowledge should be of primary focus when designing and implementing reforms. Equally important is the eleventh tool, financing development.

For all these elements, the Overview paper underlines the OECD’s experience and desire to be the Best Supporting Actor in the global development debate, making it an important source of expertise. With partnerships such as PARIS21 on statistics, the New Deal for fragile states, the Knowledge Sharing Alliance for peer learning, the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation and many others, the OECD has already started to engage with the global concerns and take concrete actions. Particularly interesting is the multi-stakeholder Task Force on Tax and Development launched by the OECD in January 2010 and its “Tax Inspectors Without Borders” (TIWB) proposal.  

All in all, this Overview paper not only lists innovative and inspiring ways of supporting outcomes to reach, but also gives the tools to do so which makes it particularly engaging and an interesting read. 

Charlotte Demuijnck

See also:

The OECD’s contribution on education to the post-2015 framework: PISA for development