The Guidelines seek to provide parliaments and parliamentarians and those who work with them with a common understanding of development cooperation and offer ideas on what they can do to promote more effective and accountable use of aid in particular and of resources for development in general. In particular, this note introduces parliamentarians and parliamentary staff to:

• The basic concept, main elements, and key commitments of effective development cooperation, in all its forms, public and private, financial and non-financial, international and domestic.
• The architecture of effective development cooperation, including the main delivery modalities, actors involved, and coordination structures at the global and country levels.
• Concrete ways in which they can contribute to development cooperation and engage with effective development cooperation and global forums such as the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC).
• Actions that can be taken by parliamentarians to ensure resources and partnerships are used in the most effective way possible, to contribute to increased development impact.

The Guidelines are published jointly by Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).