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The United Arab Emirates becomes the first Participant in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) became a Participant in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on 1 July 2014. As a major provider of concessional finance for development, the UAE has much to contribute to the DAC’s discussions on key development issues. Integrating the UAE’s experience will enhance the quality of the DAC’s work and further strengthen its influence in shaping the international development debate, including on the post-2015 development agenda. The DAC, as the leading international forum for providers of development co-operation, also has much to offer the UAE. Most notably, as a Participant, the UAE will have greater opportunities to learn from other countries’ experience in managing a development co-operation programme.

When accepting the OECD’s invitation to become a Participant of the DAC, the UAE’s Minister of International Co‑operation and Development, H.E. Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasami, expressed her country’s “enthusiasm to work jointly towards development effectiveness”. The DAC Chair, Erik Solheim, welcomed the news and stressed that the initiative by the UAE to take part in the DAC “will improve global development co-operation.”     

The UAE is the first Participant in the DAC and, as such, can take part in all non-confidential meetings of the Committee, including its High-Level and Senior-Level Meetings, and the meetings of the DAC subsidiary bodies. However, the UAE will not take part in formal decision-making processes and cannot serve as Chair or Vice-Chair of the DAC or its sub-committees.