The Pacific Islands Forum countries will use the Cairns Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination (Forum Compact) to follow up on the outcomes of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness which ended in the city of Busan, Republic of Korea today. Speaking on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum in the final plenary session of the HLF4, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade said the Forum Compact adopted in 2009, “has already gone beyond aid effectiveness to focus on development effectiveness and is the primary mechanism which the Pacific region will use to follow-up on and localize the outcomes of the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.” “At the political level, we will continue to advocate strongly for all development partners and development cooperation actors to sign up to the Compact process, particularly processes aimed at transparency and accountability. We will continue to advocate for and monitor results of effective development cooperation, keeping a focus on achieving the Paris and Accra targets as a measure of good practice in development cooperation in the Pacific,” Mr Slade said. He affirmed the Compact as a regional platform for the implementation of Paris principles and now the Busan partnership, and acknowledged the role of regional organisations as an extension of national capacities to support governments and national stakeholders in this process. The Forum Secretary General highlighted three processes as instrumental to operationalising the Busan outcomes. These were: • the annual peer review of partner country systems as an excellent opportunity for countries of the region to share knowledge and for peer to peer learning; • track the extent to which development partners’ behaviour is actually changing in line with development effectiveness principles; and • continue to track progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific. “Positive progress will provide a measure of the effectiveness of development efforts in the Pacific,” said Mr Slade. He concluded: “that at the end of the day it is not the outcomes and the fine phrasing of Busan that will deliver the results we want. Rather, it will be the results of the new and meaningful partnerships we forge and take from here; and it will be the example of home truths and action from this city of Busan - the example of principle, determination and near perfection of efficiency in the use of aid.” The global three-day high level forum attended by about 2,300 delegates including Ministers, parliamentarians, representatives of international and regional organizations, the private sector, civil society organizations from 160 countries ended with an outcomes document renewing the commitment by developed and developing countries to aid effectiveness which is now enlarged to development effectiveness. Ministers and senior government officials from Australia, the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu attended the meeting in Busan. The outcomes document of the 4th High Level on Aid Effectiveness can be accessed through this link: http://www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4/images/stories/hlf4/HLF4_OUTCOME_DOCUMENT_--_FINAL_EN_1.pdf ENDS.
