Capacity Development in Busan

Capacity Development was addressed in the discussions as a fundamental cross-cutting issue in Busan, even more than expected :

1) The importance of Capacity Development was exemplified by the interventions made by the African delegations. Across the different sessions, the African position was very well articulated and coherent. In essence: Africa has the highest density of mineral resources in the world. Africa should not need Aid, but it needs Capacity to transform itself and develop its own strategies.

2) Capacity was also addressed at the highest political level:

-South Korean President Lee built the narrative of Korea's historical success around the power of education and the design of long-term plans, with focus on strategic sectors for growth. He advocated that the first priority should be for Development Partners to support the capacity of Developing Countries so that they can build and implement their own plans.

-Rwanda's President Paul Kagame articulated the strong link between Country systems, Capacity and Accountability for development Results.

-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for her part, attracted a lot of attention with the following message for Developing countries: "beware of donors, who are more interested in extracting your resources, rather than building your Capacity!"

In the outcome document, CD is not mentioned in the preamble, which some seemed to regret as a first move.  Nevertheless, there is a general sense of optimism among most stakeholders, as CD is recognised implicitly throughout the document as a cross-cutting issue notably through importance given to ownership.

Further, the specific references to effective institutions and country systems confirm that CD is regarded as fundamental to achieving development effectiveness and will need to be a focus of attention post-Busan : See below the "New Consensus on effective institutions" endorsed by the Commission.

CD is also one of the underlying dimensions with respect to the catalytic role of aid and knowledge sharing, as it could be seen in several sessions.