A/HRC/7/15 page 17 goals. The need for global development partnerships, as stipulated in goal 8, stems from the lack of financial and human resources that most developing countries are chronically faced with. Besides, the international policy environment is unfavourable, as developing countries receive inconsistent aid flows while international trade barriers still exist. Also, the systemic weaknesses in global governance with regard to transparency, accountability and participation, especially in international agreements on trade and finance, cannot be addressed by developing countries on their own and without international cooperation.18 66. Though most experts argue that there is no legally binding international obligation on the part of developed countries to provide international aid and development assistance to developing countries, the existing international legal framework on international cooperation makes a strong case for rich developed countries to assume a moral and political obligation to reach out to developing countries in the spirit of international cooperation. In the section below, the independent expert discusses the experience of poverty reduction strategy papers in Africa to examine the effectiveness of international cooperation. 67. The eradication of extreme poverty should be the primary objective of development policies, and can only be ensured by a rights-based approach to development. Those policies must internalize the basic principles of international human rights norms: equity, non-discrimination, participation, accountability and transparency. 68. The development compacts19 model of international cooperation for implementing poverty reduction programmes requires that the issue of donor conditionalities be resolved in a manner whereby developing countries, while receiving international aid and assistance to fulfil their development objectives, do not have to sacrifice ownership in the design and implementation of their policies and programmes. This approach requires developing countries to accept obligations to fulfil and protect human rights. The international community, including donor countries and 18 Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Millenium Development Goal 8: Indicators for International Human Rights Obligations, Human Rights Quarterly 28 (2006), pp. 966-997. 19 The concept of “development compacts”, as developed by Dr. Arjun Sengupta, then independent expert on the right to development, is a practical model for implementing the right to development through international cooperation, and to set up a monitoring system within the countries engaged in that cooperation. The right to development-development compact (RTD-DC) model is based on a mutual commitment between the donor countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, financial institutions and concerned developing countries for implementing the right to development through programmes, namely poverty reduction programmes. The concerned developing countries must accept the primary responsibility for implementation of the poverty reduction programmes covered by the RTD-DC model, but these programmes should not be imposed from outside and countries implementing these programmes must have ownership over them.