The Minister of Finance, Emília Pires, visited Finland at the invitation of the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, to participate in the panel of speakers of the Second High Level Preparatory Symposium for the second biennial High Level Development Cooperation Forum.
The Symposium was co-organized by the Finland Government and the United Nations (ECOSOC – Economic and Social Council) in Helsinki, on the 3rd and 4th of June.
Under the theme “Coherent Development Cooperation: Maximize the Impacts in a Change Environment”, the symposium had the participation of governmental and parliamentary representatives with vast knowledge on development cooperation, local authorities, civil authorities and private sector, as well as foundation members.
The Minister of Finance, in her intervention, focussed upon the “need to have political coherence between the donors and beneficiary nations” and also presented examples of answers for political coherence to development challenges.
Emília Pires, also took the “opportunity to thank the Government and the People of Finland for their continuous support and friendship to Timor-Leste. Your contribution to our country in terms of human rights education, poverty reduction and in particularly for persons with disability has been appreciated”, said the Minister.
Several issues were in discussion in this meeting, among them the way to achieve more coherent policies in order to maximize the impacts on internationally agreed goals. For this, one of the symposium’s objectives was to review the coherence among the development cooperation objectives and the national policies.
The symposium also gave special emphasis to the role of the private sector and the development cooperation foundations, and in the exam of aid efficacy in the gender equality area.