Mr. President,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

At the outset, the Group of 77 wishes to thank you for your efforts in convening this special meeting of the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) to address challenges we will be facing in implementing the post-2015 development agenda with poverty eradication and sustainable development at its core.

The Group attaches great importance to the Development Cooperation Forum, as a principal forum for global dialogue and policy review on international development cooperation. We consider that the Development Cooperation Forum could be an appropriate high-level forum that allows a broader participation of key actors and promotes an effective dialogue among them.

We strongly believe that the United Nations have a central and leading role to play to enhance international cooperation and to address international problems of economic and financial character. The Secretary General's report on trends and progress in international development cooperation (E/2014/77) offers an interesting overview on these areas and some recommendations on how to enhance both the quantity and quality of development cooperation that the Group is still considering and finds useful in these and subsequent deliberations.

The present situation is compounded by the impact of recent financial and economic crisis, which pose new challenges for development. It has reversed development gains in developing countries and seriously undermined the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Moreover, developing countries as a whole continue to experience a net outflow of financial resources, which also has a tremendous impact on their capacity to mobilize resources to achieve MDGs and will have an impact on implementation of post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals. It is essential that the international community provides more permanent and stable, predictable, concessional, conditionality free financial resources for developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable and least developed among them.

The G77 and China considers that the mobilization of adequate resources to developing countries from all available funding mechanisms, including multilateral, bilateral and private sources, is critical for the implementation of actions and measures towards overcoming the impact of the recent crisis and to achieve sustainable development. It is imperative that the developed countries fulfill their commitments in order to support national efforts towards the achievements of the sustainable development goals.

The need for a strengthened and renewed global partnership for development, based on the recognition of national leadership and ownership of development strategies should be a guiding principle of all UN activities including those at the country level. Partners should provide support for the realization of the objectives and goals of national development strategies. The entire UN system as well as the Bretton Woods Institutions and bilateral donors should recognize the ownership of the concerned developing countries, align their cooperation programmes with the national development strategies and also harmonize their individual cooperation programmes with a view to making the optimum contribution to the realization of national development strategies.

However, we believe that the Development Cooperation Forum should not be diverted to specific agendas pursued outside the United Nations framework. The best ways and means of enhancing international development cooperation, as well as the principles that should be applied in that regard should be discussed and decided by all Member States, in an inclusive and transparent manner, and drawing from a very wide range of experiences and practices.

We affirm the need for a sound implementation mechanism for the post-2015 agenda to ensure development resources for the attainment of goals. In this regard, we call for the intensification of development financing, for the establishment and improvement of mechanisms of technology transfer and for the enhancement of efforts to build the capacities of developing countries. We also call upon the United Nations development system to promote transfer of technologies from developed countries for the benefit of developing countries to address issues of poverty eradication and sustainable development, and in this context encourage, when possible, technology cooperation among the countries of the South. In this regard, we are also looking forward to seeing proposed options for the technology facilitation mechanism.

We also reiterate our commitment to strengthening institutional framework for sustainable development and in this regard we were happy to see good discussions on international cooperation on sustainable development at the High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development which took into account preparation on Development Cooperation Forum. We are looking forward to future discussions in the HLPF that will take into account the work of DCF as it reviews and monitors the post-2015 development agenda and future sustainable development goals.

Mr. President,

The G77 and China believes that, now more than ever, the Development Cooperation Forum should focus on priority issues for action that are based on practical outcomes and can lead to concrete results. In this regard, mutual accountability and aid transparency should be thoroughly discussed as well as South-South and triangular cooperation; and aid policy coherence with a view to moving from aid to more long-term sources of development financing,

We would like to reiterate the importance and the contribution of South-South cooperation in meeting important development challenges and objectives. The South-South cooperation is an expression of South-South solidarity that has proven its relevance by a rapid growth. It is a rising and dynamic phenomenon, an important process that is vital to confront the challenges faced by the developing countries, making an increasingly important contribution to their development. It is also clear that South-South cooperation cannot, and should not, replace North-South cooperation, but be a complement to it. As our Group has emphasized on many occasions, the North has an obligation, both in their own national interest, but also in the interest of global harmony and equity and development, to fulfill their commitments through North-South cooperation.

We support the integration of South-South and triangular cooperation in the policies and strategic framework of funds and programmes of the United Nations system, as well as its strengthening through the system-wide provision of additional resources, including through financial and human resources to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, and recognize that the Office, currently hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), constitutes a separate entity with a distinct legal nature, entrusted with the coordination on a global and United Nations system-wide basis for promoting and facilitating initiatives related to South-South cooperation for development.

The Group reiterates the call to the UN funds and programmes as well as the specialized agencies to continue taking concrete measures to mainstream support for South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, to help developing countries to develop capacities to maximize the benefits and impact of South-South and triangular cooperation.

Mr. President,

The Group of 77 and China stress the need for a new and stronger commitment by developed countries to international cooperation aimed at supporting the fulfilment of the development aspirations of developing countries. As part of the Millennium Development Goals, a commitment was made to a global partnership for development, which was the international cooperation dimension of the Millennium Development Goals framework. However, we note with concern the significant shortfall in the partnership under the Goals, which contributed to the lack of achievement of many goals and targets. We therefore call for the urgent implementation of all commitments under the global partnership for development so as to overcome the gaps identified in the latest report of the Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force.

We also call upon leaders of the developed countries to agree and commit to a new phase of international cooperation through a strengthened and scaled-up global partnership for development, which should be the centrepiece and anchor for both the sustainable development goals and the post-2015 development agenda. Such an enhanced global partnership should include the issues of providing financial resources to developing countries, official development assistance, debt relief and debt restructuring, trade, technology transfer and greater participation of developing countries in global economic governance.

We stress the need for ensuring new and additional financial support to developing countries as a key means of implementation for achieving the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals and implement the forthcoming sustainable development goals. Financial assistance should be made available without conditionalities, since development strategies should be country-led and take into account the specific conditions, needs and priorities of developing countries.

We underscore the importance of strengthening the global partnership for development, to be based on quantified and time-bound targets, consistent with Millennium Development Goal No. 8 and in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the post-2015 development agenda. Strengthened commitment from developed countries is therefore required to enhance international cooperation and scale up support for developing countries.

Finally, recalling the statement made at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that poverty eradication is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, we emphasize that poverty eradication must remain the central and overarching objective of the post-2015 development agenda. We strongly support the view that the post-2015 development agenda should reinforce the commitment of the international community to eradicate poverty by 2030.

Thank you.