Governance initiative launched

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shakes hands with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría at the launch of a new multilateral initiative called the Partnership for Democratic Governance (PDG).The new initiative is designed to assist those developing countries that need help to improve governance, strengthen capacity and accountability, and deliver the services that are essential supports of effective government.

The launch was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 1 October, 2007. The initiative responds to a difficult challenge.Development assistance is not just about how much aid is given, but how it is managed and spent. However, many recipient countries lack the strong institutional services OECD countries take for granted, such as tax and legal departments needed to help governments invest aid effectively, or to bring in foreign investment. Also, weak institutional capacity can impede poorer countries wishing to trade with other markets, because of inefficient customs for instance.

US Secretary of State Rice hailed the PDG initiative as the first concerted effort to determine how the international community can help developing country governments, notably by providing them with temporary international personnel. “Long after the good work of the Partnership for Democratic Governance is done, what will endure are stronger, more capable institutions in democratic developing countries, ” the secretary of state said. The PDG’s founding members are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and the US, as well as the OECD, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

Email pdgcontact@oecd.org or see the website www.oecd.org/pdg

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