CSO members of CPDE adopt Beirut Declaration to uphold development cooperation commitments

BEIRUT - March 13, 2019 - PRLog -- At the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) Policy Conference 2019 held in Beirut, CSOs tackled emerging issues surrounding development cooperation and affirmed their commitment to advocate for and contribute towards achieving development effectiveness. The discussions culminated in the adoption of an outcome document, the Beirut Declaration: Upholding Accountability, Building Solidarity for Effective, People-Centred Development.

A total of 50 CSOs coming from six regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and the Pacific – and eight sectors – Faith-based Organisations, Labour, Rural, International CSOs, Indigenous Peoples, Youth, and Migrants – adopted the declaration, which underlines the major issues in the development cooperation and the actions that need to be fulfilled by the governments and other development actors.

Through the Beirut Declaration, CSOs reiterate their call on all development stakeholders to uphold EDC principles, reverse the trend of shrinking and closing civic spaces, and address the issue of corporate capture of development, and other emerging concerns.

CPDE Co-Chair Beverly Longid says, "The discussions and sharing of lived experiences of our members should inspire us to strengthen our ranks, foster people-to-people cooperation, build solidarity and alliances, and find alternative and innovative forms of resistance, to more effectively carry out our advocacy of effective development cooperation. We will bring the Beirut Declaration with us as we continue our work with our constituencies as well as our policy engagements."

The CPDE Policy Conference 2019 was attended by CPDE members from the aforementioned six regions and eight sectors, and made possible by the support of the European Commission and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

"The CPDE Policy Conference 2019 was a meaningful opportunity for CSOs under the CPDE platform to thoroughly discuss and understand the issues of corporate capture of development and shrinking civic spaces that define our current context, and the challenges they pose for civil society," CPDE Co-Chair Monica Novillo further explained.

CPDE is an open, global platform of CSOs working on and advocating for universalising effective development cooperation. Visit www.csopartnership.org, or follow @CSOPartnership_ on Twitter, and @CSOPartnerships on Facebook, to know more about the platform, its constituencies and members, and its advocacies.