•More than 100 countries and international organisations have supported the GDI, and nearly 70 countries have joined the UN-based Group of Friends of the GDI.
•2023 is the year of mid-term review of the 2030 Agenda, and the UN will convene the SDG Summit in September.
Image: CIKD
On June 20, the Center for International Knowledge on Development released the Progress Report on the Global Development Initiative (GDI). The report offers a review of the positive progress of the Initiative and an in-depth analysis of its important contributions to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
On June 21, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu delivered a speech during the report. He noted that the report gives vivid stories of development about the global action of the GDI and lays out useful policy recommendations for implementing the initiative. As the first progress report on the GDI, it is highly relevant for implementing the Initiative, achieving the 2030 Agenda and advancing international development cooperation.
The GDI is an important public good China provides to the international community in the new era, and an important practice of the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind in global development. In September 2021, President Xi Jinping put forward the GDI at the General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.
He called on the international community to prioritise development, pay attention to the special situations of developing countries, deepen cooperation on eight key areas, and pool efforts to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The GDI reflects the call of the world’s people for peace, development, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, and has been warmly received across the international community. More than 100 countries and international organisations have supported the GDI, and nearly 70 countries have joined the UN-based Group of Friends of the GDI.
In June 2022, President Xi chaired the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development. He called on the international community to act in unison and with great motivation to promote global development and foster a development paradigm featuring benefits for all, balance, coordination, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and common prosperity. He also announced a series of major steps China will take to implement the GDI, and a list of deliverables with 32 measures that cover its eight key areas of cooperation charting the course for GDI implementation.
Humanity has come to another historical crossroads. World economic recovery remains sluggish. Multiple challenges, including geopolitical tensions, climate change and food and energy crises, compound each other. Global development faces a serious situation, with developing countries struggling to implement the 2030 Agenda.
2023 is the year of mid-term review of the 2030 Agenda, and the UN will convene the SDG Summit in September. The desire of developing countries for cooperation and development is stronger than ever. We need to expand global consensus on development.
Only through development can we address the root causes of conflicts, safeguard the basic rights of the people, and meet their aspiration for a better life. It is important to firmly promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, keep global industrial and supply chains smooth and stable, jointly build an open world economy, and bring global development back on track.
We need to foster greater synergy between development strategies. This entails actively promoting global, regional, sub-regional and inter-state cooperation on development, and better synergise development strategies with members of the Group of Friends of the GDI as well as their regions.
Image: UN
Specifically, the initiative should be aligned with major development strategies of developing country groups such as the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 and ASEAN’s Vision 2025. We need to proceed with UN processes on development and forge synergy with the SDG Stimulus proposed by the UN Secretary General so as to expedite the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
We need to further mobilise development resources of governments, business communities, the academia and civil society, and draw on their comparative strengths to improve resource allocation and the overall development level of developing countries. Developed countries need to earnestly shoulder their responsibilities by delivering on their commitments of official development assistance, development financing and climate financing, and by participating more in GDI cooperation in various fields.
As the Chinese often say, “It is more important to teach people how to fish than just giving them fish.” Global development requires intellectual support. For countries caught up in the development conundrum, knowledge on development is an important development resource. China stands ready to share its successful experience in Chinese modernisation, and provide useful reference for fellow developing countries.
The CIKD is an important institution devoted to promoting cooperation in international development knowledge whose establishment was announced by President Xi Jinping at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015. It is expected to make even more contributions to the studies of development theories, exchanges of development knowledge and cooperation on development.
China always places its own development in the bigger context of human development, and sees its own future as closely intertwined with the future of the people around the world. No matter how much it develops, China will always be a member of the developing world and a partner and brother of fellow developing countries. It is a symphony played by the entire developing world.
Stephen Ndegwa is the executive director of South-South Dialogues, a Nairobi-based communications development think tank.