At the first high-level meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC), civil society was recognized for its crucial contribution to development. Leaders from around the world came together in Mexico City to further the GPEDC’s mission of advancing efforts to bring about more effective development cooperation and more inclusive global progress.
All delegates adopted a communiqué outlining the Partnership’s priorities as the United Nations develops a post-2015 development agenda. In this document, the GPEDC recognized the crucial role that civil society organizations (CSOs) play in effective, rights-based development. The Partnership also reaffirmed its commitment to “enable CSOs to exercise their roles as independent development actors, with a particular focus on an enabling environment, consistent with international rights.” The communique urges inclusive stakeholder dialogue and capacity-building measures in order to fulfill this commitment.
ICNL worked with government and civil society partners to contribute to this outcome and participated in a focus session on civil society enabling environments at the High Level Meeting.