Assessing the Global Landscape of International Development Cooperation

The Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) of the United Nations aims to enhance development priorities by fostering cooperative relationships which prioritize the ownership of developing countries. To monitor and evaluate its implementation, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) conducts a biennial survey that helps governments self-assess how effectively their development cooperation system functions, by examining the current status of four key enablers: National Development Cooperation Policy (NDCP), Country Results Framework (CRF), Development Cooperation Information Systems (DCIS), and National Development Cooperation Forum (NDCF).

Since 2009, countries have voluntarily participated in the DCF survey by self-reporting their responses. These responses are analyzed and integrated by UNDESA into the DCF Survey Study Report biennially. To complement UNDESA’s analysis, the Capstone team conducted a longitudinal study to uncover trends and changes in the factors that enable countries to achieve their development goals. The analysis was conducted for survey responses from 2018 to 2022 and focused on the NDCP enabler, prioritizing questions that offer the most potential for the team to draw inferences on the conditions promoting development cooperation.

The findings include the trends drawn from survey responses to gain a clearer understanding of how countries' priorities have evolved over the years: changes in the scope of enablers; the level of inclusion of several stakeholders; and the level of alignment of enablers with the global agenda. Additionally, the findings offer insights into the consistency and accuracy of survey responses, which could inform future survey designs to enhance data reliability and validity, ultimately improving the efficacy of decision-making processes based on survey outcomes.