16 Asia-Pacific governments meet to discuss national planning, coordination, and data systems needs

18 government representatives from 16 Asia-Pacific countries are meeting this week in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss their national planning, coordination and data system needs.

During the two-day workshop, co-hosted by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), participants are sharing their experiences and receive training on using development cooperation information systems, a key enabler of effective development cooperation.

At the meeting, government representatives are being encouraged to engage in two global processes; the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

The data and evidence generated by these fora will help increase the effectiveness of development resources, in their countries.

The data and evidence generated by these fora will help increase the effectiveness of development resources, in their countries.

International Aid Transparency Initiative

Participants are learning about how IATI can offer better access to data on billions of dollars of development and humanitarian resources flowing into their countries. To date, more than 1,500 organisations, including governments, development finance institutions, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations have published data on their finances and activities to IATI. This data is available online for anyone in the world to access, analyse and use.

At the meeting, UNDP, as coordinator of IATI’s Secretariat, will train governments on accessing this data to inform and support more effective planning, budgeting, and coordination of development cooperation resources.

Development Cooperation Forum

The meeting is also providing practical recommendations for policy makers and practitioners, informed by DCF research and analysis, including the biennial DCF Survey exercise, which has provided evidence of the effectiveness of international development cooperation, since 2009. The survey conducted by UNDESA, helps governments assess how effectively their development cooperation systems work by examining the state of 5 key enablers: national development cooperation policies (NDCPs); country-driven results frameworks (CRFs); national development cooperation forums (NDCF); development cooperation information systems (DCIS); and capacity support.

Mr. Christophe Bahuet, Deputy Regional Director Asia and the Pacific and Director, Bangkok Regional Hub, UNDP said: “There are only eight years until 2030, and the pandemic has voided development gains made over the recent years. Our responsibility as Governments, international organisations and development partners is to get us back on track and accelerate efforts to reach both the SDGs and countries’ own national development goals.

Our responsibility as Governments, international organisations and development partners is to get us back on track and accelerate efforts to reach both the SDGs and countries’ own national development goals.

This can only be achieved if together we find ways to enhance the quality, impact and effectiveness of all types of cooperation, partnerships and financing.

UNDP is strongly committed to effective development cooperation. Transparency starts with ourselves and having UNDP is consistently ranked as one of the most transparent development agencies worldwide is meaningful – so is our active involvement in the International Aid Transparency Initiative, both as Coordinator of its Secretariat since 2013, but also as a publisher of IATI data.”

Mr. Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, UNDESA, said: “Advancing risk-informed development cooperation urgently requires building better data and statistical capacities and systems within countries. And this must come with access to high-quality, timely, reliable and disaggregated data and the capacity to leverage new data sources, including digital data.

The High-level meeting of the Development Cooperation Forum will be held on 14-15 March 2023, and will be an important opportunity for all countries to reinforce ongoing efforts to strengthen national development cooperation data and information systems, including through South-South and regional cooperation.”

The 2022 Asia Pacific Regional Workshop: Strengthening Policies, Processes, and Data Systems for Effective Development Cooperation is being held from 30 November - 1 December. A summary of the workshop will be posted on the IATI website in early 2023.

For more information, contact:

Daniel Platz, Senior Economic Affairs Officer/ DCF Team Leader at UNDESA: [email protected]; or Rohini Simbodyal, Communications Specialist at UNDP: [email protected].