THE 4th high-level meeting of the OECD Development Centre yesterday noted that policy makers in developing economies are confronted with increasingly complex decisions as they balance their economic, social and environmental agendas. While rising income levels help improve development outcomes, they also bring about new challenges and demands from emerging middle-classes.

The discussions focused on the opportunities and challenges faced by countries transitioning to higher income levels, the consequences of international migration for developing countries, and the drivers of gender inequality. Participants also acknowledged the role of the extractive sector in development and welcomed the achievements of the OECD Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development. Advancing the agenda of these policy areas is instrumental for the Development Centre’s work in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Debates around development in transition welcomed the developing world’s significant progress in terms of stronger growth and poverty eradication, but also recognised persistent and new challenges countries face as they move across levels of income. They agreed on the need to sustain successful development trajectories by adapting international cooperation to current development realities. To this end, they called for a broad set of development and well-being indicators, beyond income-based metrics, to better assess progress and needs of countries at different levels of development. Member countries asked the Governing Board of the Development Centre to be an open platform to shed light on the consequences of transitions and develop a box of tools to tackle them – from domestic policy to international co-operation, including South-South and Triangular Co-operation. The Centre will work with Member countries, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, the Finance Centre for South -South Cooperation, and other relevant stakeholders to advance this agenda.

The High-Level Meeting saluted the work of the Development Centre on migration in developing countries and the outcomes of its first Policy Dialogue on Migration and Development. It emphasised the importance of better managing the complex interrelations between migration and other public policies, with specific focus on emerging and developing economies. It also agreed on the need to promote greater coherence to enable the positive contribution of international migration to development, using tools such as the Dashboard of indicators for measuring policy and institutional coherence for migration and development, developed jointly by the Development Centre, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank Group, within the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).

In their discussion of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment, participants reaffirmed the importance of tackling discriminatory social norms and institutions in the identification of evidence-based policies in support of achieving the SDGs. They stressed the prominence of the Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) as an official data source to track progress on SDG 5. This complements the Centre’s actions through the Policy Dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment and support for the G20 eskills4girls initiative.