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Focus of the Forum
The Rome Stakeholder Forum, organized in cooperation with the Government of Italy, concluded the consultative preparatory process leading to the DCF by engaging parliamentarians and high-level representatives from civil society and local government in an open and interactive dialogue on their roles in contributing to effective development cooperation.
Through partnerships with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, United Cities and Local Governments, CIVICUS and Action Aid, the one-and-a-half day forum focused on the critical role these actors play in guiding, managing and monitoring development cooperation. Each covering different aspects of the development process, these actors are all instrumental in ensuring that development cooperation benefits and reaches the people with the greatest needs.
The meeting was organized around three segments and common plenary sessions with presentations, country-based case studies and discussions, addressing the following focus areas: (i) Aligning aid to national Development strategies: the role of national and local stakeholders; (ii) Reforming conditionality and tied aid: essential steps towards improving aid quality; and (iii) assessing modalities of aid delivery: budget support, project aid and technical assistance.
Outcome
As a major preparatory event for the 2008 DCF the forum ensured that the perspectives of representatives from civil society, local governments and parliaments on how to enhance effective and coherent development cooperation received attention at the international level through the DCF. The discussions were be captured in a report of the Rome forum, including key policy messages, and served to inform the 2008 DCF.
Background documentation