From 19 to 21 November 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia hosted a visit of experts from the Development Cooperation Directorate (DCD) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) who had arrived to assess the compliance of the Latvian development cooperation system with the criteria for accession to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The process of Latvia’s accession to the OECD DAC was launched in April 2024 and is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2025.
During the visit, the OECD DCD experts met with the line ministries involved in the development cooperation policy system and other public institutions, the Saeima (the Latvian Parliament), as well as civil society organisations. The discussions raised issues regarding the thematic and geographical priorities of Latvia’s development cooperation and the role of development cooperation policy in the foreign policy of the country, and relations with other sectors, including climate, economy, education, as well as cross-sectoral priorities such as digitalisation and gender equality.
The OECD DCD emphasized that the involvement of various Latvian authorities and organizations has allowed them to become acquainted in depth with Latvia’s approach to development cooperation and to see what contribution the country can make to the DAC, as well as which matters require OECD support in order to improve the system.
In the first months of 2025, OECD experts will publish an evaluation report on the development cooperation system in Latvia, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give a presentation to the OECD DAC Member States on Latvia’s contribution to development cooperation and its motivation to join the committee. This will be followed by a vote by the DAC Member States on the admission of Latvia to the DAC.
Participation in the DAC is an important step in highlighting, at the international level, of Latvia’s foreign political priorities, including support to Ukraine and other EU Eastern Partnership countries, as well as Central Asian countries, in cooperation with DAC member states. In practical terms, this means a new platform for advancing collaboration in the field of development cooperation with the other 32 DAC member states and the opportunities to improve Latvia’s development cooperation system, by attracting expert opinions from the OECD and sharing experience with other DAC Member States.
Background information
Development cooperation is the provision of assistance and expertise to partner countries with the aim of fostering sustainable social and economic development within the countries and their societies. Latvia’s development cooperation guidelines for 2021-2027 set out both bilateral and multilateral cooperation goals. Latvia's geographical priorities for development cooperation are: Eastern Partnership countries (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus); Central Asian countries (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan); African countries; and least developed countries.