Financing for Post-2015 Development Agenda should include transparency and accountability mechanisms

Under the discussions of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation and with the objective to guide a new Post- 2015 Development Agenda, we consider necessary to discuss the creation of concrete mechanisms that allow access to information regarding the flow of development financing. These mechanisms should contemplate the funding obtained from the international cooperation arena, through bilateral and multilateral official development aid (ODA); and the one from multilateral development banks, through loans and technical cooperation.

Agencies and international development programs as well as the multilateral and national development banks are considered key players in achieving the Post-2015 Development Agenda.¹ Nevertheless, there are no specific national governmental mechanisms to access to systematized, unified and harmonized information regarding: the amount of flows of international finance; the origin of the resources; the areas and sectors of implementation; the implementing institutions; the progress on its execution; and the obtained results.²

The national governments participating at the High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership must agree on providing information of the development financing in all its areas, through the creation of clear mechanisms, consistent to their particular context. This agreement would set a precedent in order to incorporate transparency, access to information and accountability in a clear and transversal way in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The existence of mechanisms to access development financing information is as relevant as ensuring the existence of specific indicators, which allows knowing the areas where these resources are being spent; who is responsible for its implementation; what results are being achieved; and the role of governments and national agencies involved in defining the Development Agenda. The configuration of these indicators becomes increasingly important, now that only one agenda will be agreed to achieve sustainable development.

Only through transparency and access to information it will be possible to articulate the actions of the different stakeholders within the development agenda, in order, to achieve poverty eradication, to close the inequality gap and to fulfill human rights.

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Context: On April 15th and 16th will be celebrated in Mexico City the First High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. At the meeting ministers, delegates, multilateral, regional and bilateral development institutions, financial institutions, parliaments, private sector and civil society organizations will discuss the principles, objectives and commitments to achieve sustainable development.

In September 2000, 189 member states of United Nations (UN) assumed the Millennium Goals Declaration, which established eight commitments known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in order to attend basic needs and guarantee human rights. The deadline for achieving these objectives is at the end of year 2015, and from that date new targets will be set for achieving sustainable development.