열린장관실

Opening Keynote Speech
by H.E. Yun Byung-se
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea

1st High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation

April 15, 2014, Mexico City



Excellencies, and Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I begin by thanking Commissioner Andris Piebalgs of EU, Dr. Raj Shah of USAID, and Ms. Roselynn Musa of CPDE for their work as the co-organizers of this Plenary.

Let me also thank the Government of Mexico for hosting the First High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation and the generous hospitality extended to all of us.

As the Foreign Minister of a country that hosted the 2011 High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, it is an honor for me to open this morning the First Plenary Session on “Progress since Busan and Inclusive Development.”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's been only two years since Busan. It may be too early to render an overall analysis of the impact Busan made in reshaping the global development architecture. Nonetheless, the architects of the Busan Global Partnership provided us with an ideal manual to construct an innovative platform of partnerships among all stakeholders for more effective development cooperation on the ground.

The moving video presentation that we just have seen demonstrates how the core values of the Busan approach such as inclusive partnership and country ownership result in changes that make a real impact on people’ lives around the world.

Likewise, one of our tasks here in Mexico is to conduct a reality check on the state of the work we do, as we are on a path leading up to post-2015.

In this vein, our discussion at this Plenary should center on how our “shared principles, common goals and differential commitments” made in Busan have been translated into our behavior change in the local context.



Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our first global monitoring completed last year found that the four shared principles – country ownership, focus on result, inclusiveness, and transparency and mutual accountability – are now the pivotal instruments that are activating “beyond-aid, toward-development” on the ground.

This is a meaningful progress compared with the days of “aid-alone” practices. However, as highlighted in the Global Partnership Progress Report detailing the data collected from 46 developing countries based on the 10 indicators, “much more needs to be done to transform cooperation practices.”

Of course, the numbers in the report can’t give us the whole picture. In addition to these quantitative evidences provided by the report, let me share with you some qualitative evidences, drawn from Korea’s own experience since Busan.

Indeed, Korea has made strenuous efforts to transform its conventional development cooperation by internalizing the four core principles.

First of all, Korea as a new provider, made a bold initiative to launch the Development Alliance Korea (DAK) in 2012. It is Korea’s first overarching cooperative network between the government and various private partners for more effective development cooperation. Through this Alliance, we are making certain that no one and no organization is left alone or behind from the partnerships. DAK is Korea's most important endeavor to fulfill the Busan commitments, particularly on the private sector.

Another important progress on the part of Korea is its preparation for to join the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) by 2015. It will allow us to gain trust not only from our taxpayers but also from our partners. In the long run, such determination to stay transparent and live up to the commitments will inevitably lead to change in our behavior.

These are just two of numerous examples that attest to how the Busan outcome document is a living guide to change our approach at the headquarters and on the ground.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I know that the Korean experience is just one of many cases around the world that have been made from Busan to Mexico. These efforts that we are making individually and collectively are strong and coherent evidences of our Busan Global Partnership.

It is in this vein that Korea has initiated to host an annual workshop starting this year to take stock of the quality results generated through the GPEDC. Through this workshop, we will be able to share successes and identify challenges in translating the Busan principles into practice so that we can have a clearer direction of our work toward years ahead.


By doing so, we will gain the full confidence that the GPEDC is the most effective mechanism to achieve our agreed development goals until and beyond 2015. Such confidence in the Busan approach will bolster the GPEDC’s role as an essential platform toward the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion, let us share our experiences of achievements and challenges and bring our collective wisdom to improve our work so that we can build a stronger case for the world to see the Busan principles and partnerships are operational on the ground.

A well-known architect, who by nature knows a thing or two about building structures from the scratch once said, “Never start with reality. Always start by identifying the ideal.” I think such a spirit of determination is what we need to bring the ideals of Global Partnership into a real and practical tool kits in the field of development cooperation.

It is my hope that the discussion this morning in Mexico will become a meaningful milestone in our journey from Busan to Post-2015. Thank you very much.