Partnerships for Development
If you don’t recognise SDG 17 (Social Development Goal) from the title here is a reminder: Goal 17 is about revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda is universal and calls for action by all countries – developed and developing – to ensure no one is left behind. It requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.
For the EBRD in practice this means teaming up with fellow MDBs and other organisations. It is super useful in reform projects. Together we can push the policymakers for much needed legal reforms in various sectors, or justice sector improvements.
The EBRD’s legal transition programme in charge of law reform works with a variety of international organisations. We tap into their expertise; we contribute practical insights from the Bank’s work into standards and best practices they develop, and we use their resources to scale up our work.
For example, for the implementation of our technical cooperation projects to deliver reforms in the justice sector we work with the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO). IDLO has offices in many of our countries of operations, whereas managing technical assistance in law is their core activity, as well as training of judges. Through our partnership we can have presence on the ground for continuous communication with the authorities, as well as for all the logistical support for implementation of a project and implicitly the reform it proposes. In many countries most commercial laws are in place, it is their implementation that is lagging. This requires setting up institutions, training them, providing capacity building for all the stakeholders. Such activities are extremely loaded from the logistics perspective.
The need for good implementation and enforcement of laws is well understood internationally. Hence the appeal of organisations like IDLO. At the latest IDLO Annual Meeting of the Assembly of Parties 2023 the member parties(states) were well represented and commended IDLO’s work. At the same time the United States was elected to serve as the President of the Assembly of Parties and Mongolia as Vice-President of the Assembly of Parties, until 2026. The Assembly also approved a generous operating budget for 2024.
IDLO uses some of its internal resource to produce helpful studies and researches, for example: Rule Of Law For Food Systems Transformation, Gender balance in justice, Climate Justice.
EBRD’s Legal Transition Team also cooperates with many other organisations. These include the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Council of Europe European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
It is essential that EBRD cooperates with other institutions to promote good governance and resilience, by sharing expertise and building on each other’s work effectively.
Veronica Bradautanu, Principal Counsel, EBRD
