Many of the existing commitments on Official Development Assistance (ODA), or aid, were made by the Organisation for Economic Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) - which is made up of a group of wealthy countries and the EU - or adjacent institutions. The problem is that the OECD-DAC lacks accountability and does not seem to have an appetite to acknowledge that. Despite commitments on aid quality and quantity, there is a clear lack of progress. A stronger binding framework which can convene all actors under one roof and hold them to account is what is missing. An IDC Convention would bring together all existing commitments while creating the normative framework to establish new ones under one umbrella. This new umbrella would not only cover OECD-DAC governments, but also other non-traditional aid providers, to whom agreed commitments on development effectiveness and quantity of ODA would also be extended.

At the same time, there is a need to protect against the dilution of commitments through rule changes made behind closed doors, among an exclusive set of countries, as was the case with the OECD-DAC’s ODA modernisation process. A new, more inclusive global governance would ensure that any rule changes enjoy the legitimacy and buy-in of the full membership of the UN. Ultimately, aid commitments are supposed to benefit countries in the global south and should be driven by those countries' national development priorities.