The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) came to a close on Dec.1st 2011 and although some observers describe the event as a turning point for international development, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) taking part in the negotiations were slightly unsatisfied. From the CSOs’ perspective the Busan HLF4 did not address the issue of human rights sufficiently as the final document Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation lacks the explicit commitments to adopt human-rights based approaches. It does not give adequate attention to women’s rights, the right to development and environmental justice. The final document, however, stresses the importance of CSOs in “promoting rights-based approaches, in shaping development policies and partnerships, and in overseeing their implementation” (article 22).
The CSOs express their satisfaction with the fact that the new aid effectiveness agenda focuses more on results as rights based development outcomes rather than aid delivery and it is more inclusive. For example it involves not only the OECD-DAC, but also the United Nations, South-South Cooperation actors, parliamentarians and local authorities, civil society and the private sector. The CSOs’ demands and expectations towards HLF4 were formulated during the Busan Civil Society Forum (BSCF) which took place just before HLF4. There, the women’s organizations from across the world, including KARAT, signed the Busan Women’s Forum Political Statement. This common voice of women called on all governments and other development actors involved in the HLF4 to include the women’s rights and gender equality perspective in a new development cooperation framework. A position of the CSOs was clearly expressed by the sentence “Put Women’s Rights at the Center of Development” on the pink scarves worn by the BSCF participants. Unfortunately, the key players of the HLF4 (e.g. China) were not inclined to abandon their countries’ interests to the human and women’s rights
Source: KARAT Coalition News, 64 (10) 2011. Warsaw, 30/12/2011
