The Summit on the Horn of Africa Crisis in Nairobi, Kenya, in September helped promote international cooperation in development aid

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff WriterWashington,
28 November 2011

The 21st century has created a new dynamic in development assistance, and 2,000 delegates from around the world will spend November 29 to December 1 forging an agreement on new principles and objectives to guide international aid in this new era.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the meeting in Busan, South Korea, demonstrating the Obama administration’s policy that investing in the social development of poor nations is an important element of U.S. foreign policy. Supporting the creation of more prosperous nations and partnerships to address global challenges is viewed as action that helps national security objectives, according to various statements made by Clinton and President Obama over the last two years.

Ministers from both developing and donor countries, government officials and representatives of civic and business organizations will convene in Busan to review global progress in achieving greater impact from development aid, according to the website of the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4). The government of South Korea and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are hosting the meeting.

The conference is the latest chapter in a movement that began in 2005 when about 100 government and development-aid representatives pledged to follow a set of principles and actions to make aid more effective.

“Aid effectiveness is about how we actually get to long-run returns on our investments,” said a senior administration official in a November 28 briefing. Clinton will speak at the event November 30; she is expected to emphasize that a government must create an atmosphere of rule of law, good governance, and sound decisionmaking processes to attract private-sector investment.

Business and industry have taken on a greater role in development aid in recent years, so the private sector will participate in this event for the first time. Several decades ago, donor governments were the greatest source of development aid, but they now provide less than 15 percent of assistance, with the private sector providing “a host of other flows,” the senior official said.

Emerging economies are also becoming a major new force in development. Rapid economic growth in nations such as China and India has allowed them to assume the role of donor governments. The Busan meeting will also work to develop policies of transparency, monitoring and anti-corruption for donor nations to follow.

Clinton will also address a session focused on gender issues and the progress of women’s empowerment in recent years.

While in South Korea, Clinton will meet with Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan. From there, she will go on to Burma, where she will be the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the country since the military seized power in 1962.