The United Nations Economic and Social Council launched its Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) in Geneva on 5 July 2007. The biennial high-level Forum, one of the new principal functions of the strengthened Council, will work to enhance the implementation of internationally-agreed development goals, with an emphasis on poverty reduction targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It will do so by reviewing trends and progress in international development cooperation, making policy recommendations based on its findings and promoting dialogue and partnership among various development partners, including UN system agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, bilateral development agencies, regional development banks, and civil society and the private sector in both developed and developing countries.

At the 2005 World Summit, Heads of State mandated the Economic and Social Council to introduce two new functions, namely the Annual Ministerial Reviews (AMR) and the Development Cooperation Forum. DCF will be held every other year, within the framework of the high-level segment of the Council, with the first one taking place in 2008 in New York. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his official address at the launch, expressed the need for such a forum, referring to it as "a decisive step forward in the implementation of the global partnership for development".

The objective of DCF is to enhance the coherence and effectiveness of the activities of different development partners from developed and developing countries, as well as to provide policy guidance and recommendations to improve the quality and impact of development cooperation by reviewing trends and progress. Hence, it is hoped that DCF will have a positive influence on the international development cooperation system by bringing together all relevant actors to engage in dialogue on key policy issues. In addition, the Forum aims to focus especially on finding effective ways to support the achievement of the MDGs, which Mr. Ban mentioned during a mid-point update in June 2007 on the Goals as "still achievable in most countries-if we act now". He noted that in recent years donors have committed to substantial increases in official development assistance (ODA) and debt relief and, until recently, the long-term decline in development assistance had been reversed. He urged donors to commit to timelines for scaling up aid to reach development targets, stressing that "fresh funding is required if we are to overcome the financing gap" and meet the MDGs in time.

The Secretary-General appealed to Governments, UN organizations, civil society, parliaments, the private sector and academia to make the most of the newly-established Forum and work diligently towards the world's shared anti-poverty goals, as well as to manage international development assistance effectively, which is characterized by imbalanced donor aid, i.e. some countries receiving "too much", while other low-income nations suffer from underfunding, and countries being pressured with responding effectively to donors increasing in number and exerting different demands. It is hoped that such imbalances will be addressed by this new initiative of the Economic and Social Council.