Global Donor Platform Annual Report 2015

The past year has transformed the policy landscape within which donor agencies work. Against the background of the three major agreements of the international community, namely SDGs/Agenda 2030, Finance for Development and UNFCCC COP21 outcomes on climate change, the donor community has been struggling to adapt to a new role in development. The increased importance of domestic finance of developing nations, the enhanced role of private sector investments and the high impact of remittances on development efforts call for revisiting donor approaches and more effective use of ODA.

A further challenge to the development assistance flows from the donor community was posed by the highly increased migration of refugees to Europe in 2015. While recognising the positive role ARD plays in combating the reasons for migration, many European countries opted to re-locate ODA assigned budget to migrants support, integration and administration. Donor agencies agree that in the framework of Agenda 2030 even more funds should be transferred to migration countries. The members of the Platform, as well as the international community as a whole, agreed that a higher level of donor coordination and exchange will be required to sustainably address the complicated sustainable development agenda and the challenges to agriculture and rural development in order to achieve measurable positive development on migration and economic development.

It is certain that agriculture and rural development (ARD) constitute highly complex systems and need long-term support. Calling for more sustainability in development by the SDGs challenges the cooperation between new actors such as the trade community or the climate change community, each introducing new approaches, new understanding and a requiring of a profound debate between all partners to achieve joint action towards rural transformation.

Publication date: June 2016