Secretaries-General for the Commonwealth and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) discussed areas of synergy between their two organisations on 4 December 2012, as the OECD met on the post-2015 global development agenda at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría shared their agendas on green growth, unlocking funds for countries to mitigate the effects of climate change, gender equality and financial stability.
Those attending the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee meeting included European Union Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, UK Secretary of State Justine Greening, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser for Post-2015 Development Planning, Amina J Mohammed, the OECD’s Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20, Gabriela Ramos, and the chief executives of AusAid, NZAid, and the Canadian International Development Agency.
Mr Sharma said the Commonwealth’s agenda was to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes arising from global discussions on the post-2015 priorities, which must be equally favourable to everyone.
He emphasised the Commonwealth’s focus on leveraging partnerships to achieve mutual goals, as laid out in the Secretariat’s new strategic plan for 2013-2017.
Mr Gurria said the OECD aimed to be global in the impact of its standards and was delighted to explore even greater possibilities of synergy with the Secretariat, working together to exchange information.
The Secretary-General also met with Mr Piebalgs to discuss areas of collaboration on climate change financing and facilitating access to trade.
Mr Sharma said the Secretariat continued to highlight the priorities of developing countries in addressing their development challenges with the G20's Development Working Group. He added that the Commonwealth would shortly be creating its own working groups on climate change financing and debt.
Mr Sharma and Mr Piebalgs also discussed the Hub and Spokes programme, which builds the trade capacity of countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions through the deployment of trade policy experts. The Commonwealth Secretariat, European Commission, ACP Secretariat and La Francophonie all support this programme.
