Over the last few years, the EU has undergone a series of fundamental changes in its strategies and instruments designed to collaborate with development partner countries, spearheaded today by the Global Gateway initiative and the Team Europe approach. The objectives of this seminar are to: (i) explore ways for development cooperation efforts to better complement the ongoing digital, green and social transitions, with a particular focus on investments; (ii) discuss whether these efforts match the needs of an increasingly complex context; and (iii) identify the optimal approaches through which the EU can effectively address these challenges.

Today, advancing new partnership models is more relevant than ever. An increasingly complex context is expediting the imperative for countries to make progress in their “triple transition” – just, green, digital, and social transitions. These new agendas represent efforts towards building new models of sustainable growth and development, providing an opportunity for countries to take action to ensure that these transitions result in inclusive and sustainable development models. They require a more effective, adequately resourced, and inclusive international co-operation system – among all income levels – that would make these transitions truly attainable, following the Development in Transition framework that stresses the need to take a multidimensional look to development and more comprehensive and inclusive approaches to international cooperation.

These new agendas or priorities will be discussed within a wider international context in which a series of unexpected and more cyclical crisis are happening, challenging the convergence process between countries, and further increasing poverty, inequalities, and socio-political instability. There is thus a pressing need to devise new and stronger responses to face these challenges. Notably, a focus on the social transition and its place within the EUs approach to partnerships, along with an emphasis on the importance of establishing new social contract(s) as an important ingredient for shifting development model(s).

This seminar is organised in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Council. It will bring together stakeholders from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia, representing the national and international public sector as well as civil society, leading think tanks, and the private sector.

AGENDA:

09h45-10h30. High-level opening
Welcome by: - Enrique Ojeda, Director, Casa de América.
- Pilar Cancela, State Secretary for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain.

10h30-10h45. Introductory remarks
- Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, Director, OECD Development Centre
- Eva del Hoyo, General Director of Sustainable Development Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain

10h45-11h30. First session. Setting the scene: Understanding the current international context and global challenges
Keynote speech:
- Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure, African Union

Moderator: Rita Da Costa, Head of Unit, Development Centre, OECD
- Eenam Gambhir, Joint Secretary G20, Ministry of External Affairs, India
- Rodrigo Salvado, Director General, Operational Partnership Department, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
- Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, Director for the Centre for Climate and Development

11h30- 11h45. Coffee break

11h45-13h00. Second session. Challenges of the “triple transition” and socio-economic inequalities
Keynote speech:
- Louise Cord, Global Director for Social Sustainability and Inclusion in the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Practice Group, World Bank

Moderator: Leire Pajín, President, EU-LAC Foundation
- Sama Mamane, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of Planning, Niger
- Andrea Costafreda, Director for Latin America, Oxfam
- Faten Aggad, Senior Advisor, Climate Diplomacy and Geopolitics, African Climate Foundation
- Jose Antonio Sanahuja, Director, Fundación Carolina

13h00-14h00. Third session. Financing the triple transition
Keynote speech:
- Jose Antonio Ocampo, Former Minister of Finance, Colombia

Moderator: Antón Leis, Director, AECID
- Lisa Kurbiel, Head of Secretariat, Joint SDG Fund
- Robert Marc Schoellhammer, Advisor to ADB’s Strategy Policy and Partnership Department, Asian Development Bank
- Fazia Pusterla, Europe Representative, InterAmerican Development Bank

14h00-15h30. Lunch break

15h30-16h35. Fourth session. The role of the European Union and Spain in shaping international co-operation
Keynote speech:
- Eva del Hoyo, Director-General of Sustainable Development Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Moderator: Ana Terrón Cusí, International and Iberoamerican Foundation for Public Policy and Administration (FIIAPP) Director
- Martin Seychell, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
- Belén Martínez Carbonell, Managing Director, European External Action Service (EEAS)
- Victoria Kyritsi, Head of Strategy and Policy, European Investment Bank
- Iliana Olivié, Senior researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute
- Mahmoud Mohieldin, United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda

16h30-16h45. Closing remarks
- Alejandro Fernández-Mazarambróz, Deputy Director-General of Sustainable Development Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
- Manuel Escudero, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Spain to the OECD and Chair of the OECD Development Centre.

Date and time:
📅 5 July 2023
⌚ 9.45
📍  Room Simón Bolívar. 
▶  Access with invitation