Building on the successful organization of the Development Leaders Conference (DLC) in 2023 in Oslo, Norway, the Government of Indonesia, in collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the Center for Global Development (CGD), once again co-hosted the DLC in Jimbaran, Bali, on June 12-13.
The conference brought together advanced DAC (Development Assistance Committee) member states, developing countries emerging as new donors, and representatives from international organizations, think tanks, and philanthropic institutions. The DLC serves as a limited forum for discussing global development cooperation and provides a platform for exchanging policy perspectives and best practices in fostering multi-stakeholder cooperation.
With over 80 delegations from various international institutions in attendance, the forum offered Indonesia a chance to bolster its position and posture as part of the Global South, reaffirming its role as a reliable southern provider in the context of triangular cooperation. This DLC also provided Indonesia an opportunity to enhance its profile as a new donor country and to encourage other developing countries to emerge as new donors.
In his opening remarks, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Pahala Nugraha Mansury, emphasized the importance of close cooperation between traditional donor countries and new donor countries, particularly in addressing the gap in achieving SDGs targets between developed and developing nations. He highlighted that development cooperation should support the most vulnerable groups, noting that current international development assistance is largely dominated by concessional loans.
Vice Minister Mansury also stressed that established cooperation should drive economic transformation, such as downstreaming and energy transition, through financial support and technology transfer. He emphasized that development cooperation should act as a catalyst for partnership among stakeholders. “The scheme of global development cooperation cannot be separated from the important role of developing countries,” added the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.