“We were once again reminded of the importance of development cooperation when the world was struck by the coronavirus pandemic. It has claimed millions of lives, created serious economic and social challenges to many countries, and increased the number of people suffering from poverty and hunger around the world. It became evident that even the biggest countries in the world cannot deal with global threats alone - only the entire international community can overcome the pandemic,” the President said.
Lithuania has already taken significant steps to make development cooperation policy more effective: it intends to increase official development assistance by 2.5 times by 2030. Last year, the President signed the Law on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance, which will not only create preconditions to put the necessary financial instruments in place but will also promote the development of the entire ecosystem.
According to the President, to achieve a breakthrough in development cooperation, Lithuania must first set the priorities and base its actions on the model of partnerships, develop new forms of cooperation between public and private sectors and non-governmental organizations, increase the engagement of businesses, as well as promote the development of a new ecosystem with higher added value. “All the interested institutions and especially our economic diplomacy must play an active role in achieving these goals. We are proud of Lithuania’s experience in public sector reforms, information and communication technologies, financial technologies, as well as renewable energy and water management sectors - so let’s make the best of it!
The President pointed out that Lithuania's development cooperation policy should continue to focus on Eastern Partnership countries. “However, we cannot forget countries in Africa and Central Asia where international organizations administer major assistance programmes,” the President said.
Lithuania should see it as a meaningful investment that will eventually produce political, economic and social returns. According to the President, Lithuania needs to be more active in international development cooperation institutions, review the mechanism of delegation, and initiate the procedure of joining the OECD Development Assistance Committee.
Among the other issues discussed at the conference was the current state of Lithuania's development cooperation policy and further steps to strengthen its effectiveness. A report on strengthening Lithuania’s development cooperation policy and recommendations for the changes needed to deliver it were introduced at the conference. The study was prepared by the Create Lithuania team.
The virtual conference “A New Vision of Lithuania’s Development Cooperation Policy” was organized by the Office of the President of Lithuania together with Create Lithuania and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The discussion on Lithuania’s development cooperation continues the general review of Lithuania’s participation in EU policies initiated by the President in 2019.
