Trade unions join the OECD/DAC Senior Level Meeting

John Evans, TUAC Secretary General, represented the trade union movement following the first-ever invitation from the DAC Chair, Brian Atwood, to the OECD Development Assistance Committee Senior Level Meeting. The meeting took place on April 3-4 at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris.

The DAC Senior Level Meeting (SLM) brings together the heads of the development agencies of the 24 “donor” countries and is part of the OECD. DAC “promotes development cooperation and other policies so as to contribute to sustainable development, including pro-poor economic growth, poverty reduction, improvement of living standards in developing countries and to a future in which no country will depend on aid”.

Brian Atwood, in his opening words at the SLM, welcomed the presence of the social partners (through TUAC and BIAC) and referred to their added value in other debates and arenas such as the OECD and the G20 discussions.

The SLM addressed various elements of the current development agenda: the post 2015 development goals; the upcoming RIO conference, the Follow up to the Busan HLF4, the modernisation of the DAC Peer Reviews and Statistics, and last but not least, the OECD Development Strategy for the coming years.

The debate on “Development goals, past en future: reflections on the MDGs and what might follow” was rather explorative and prudent. Many of the speakers agreed not to start too early with the fixing the post 2015 framework. Rio+20 and the eventual adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the further developments under the new, more inclusive Busan Partnership, will be important progress markers and indicators for the debate. Many insisted therefore, for the time being, on looking carefully at the process rather than at the content, the UN context being an additional element of complexity.

Discussion on the Busan commitments was an opportunity for the trade union movement to raise its concern about the unregulated private sector focus, the need for rights-based approaches as well as the role and contribution of the international trade union movement in the post Busan dynamics. “It’s global-light/country-heavy representative structure and operations in-country as well as on a global level, does indeed make the trade unions a key partner for the Busan Partnership”, insisted John Evens. The BIAC representative however was less forthcoming in his engagement, stating that they only endorsed the commitments in § 32 of the Busan Declaration.

Debate on the OECD Development Strategy addressed the main strategic choices in preparation of the adoption of the Strategy at the Ministerial Meeting that will take place in May this year. Although there is some kind of understanding of the future role of the OECD in the development architecture, based on its limited mandate but important acquis (peer reviews, statistics, analytic work, etc), there is still much to be debated when it comes to the concrete actions for the future. Promoting and facilitating Policy Coherence is probably one of the most challenging but needed dimensions of the Strategy. However, OECD does not seem ready, World Bank pulling all the breaks here, to endorse more effective standard-setting mechanisms that could hold countries accountable for their development commitments.

The announcement of the ODA figures for 2012 did made clear that strategic options will have to be based on other elements that increase ODA. Hence the insistence on “the catalytic” nature of ODA, the concentration on LDC and the (optimistic) expectations for private sector-based development.

The same prudence also shone through in the debate on the DAC priorities, where much emphasis was given to existing and mainstream tasks, based on a “0-increase” budget. Only 3 governments explicitly supported more social orientations (NO) and put emphasis on Human Rights (AU) and Rights Based Approaches (DK).

The debate on the DAC declaration for RIO+20 turned around the need to understand the concept of sustainability not only as “environmental” but also as social and economic. Together with some of the governments (NO), trade unions supported the inclusion of the broader concept and proposed a number of amendments to reinforce the social pillar referring to our decent work and social protection floor demands.

Article by Jan Dereymaeker, ITUC/TUAC delegation to the DAC SLM.