I’m just back from the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which took place in South Korea last week. It was a busy few days of negotiations, exchanges and discussions, but I’m glad to say that we finally agreed on an outcome which I think we can all be proud of. 

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, as it is known, sets out future development commitments to make aid more effective and help to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  Crucially, it is the first aid effectiveness agreement to include the major emerging economies.

The Busan Forum was one of those occasions on which I felt immensely proud to be representing the EU. We have kept to our ambitions and been a leader throughout this process; helping to bring together and build consensus amongst all stakeholders, culminating here in Busan.  I was also particularly pleased to announce two initiatives – the EU Transparency Guarantee and Joint Programming – which will help to make EU aid both more transparent and more efficient.

The partnership that has been agreed on here in Busan is groundbreaking – it is ambitious and balanced and manages to include more stakeholders – emerging economies like Brazil, China and India,  as well as the private sector and civil society – than ever before. It also includes major commitments on transparency, results, use of country systems and the reduced fragmentation of aid.

I’ve often said that it is vital that every euro of taxpayer’s money helps to make a difference on the ground where it is most needed. Thanks to the new Busan outcome document, EU citizens can now rest assured that their aid will be more efficient, and benefit more people as a result, than ever before.

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