Countries advanced negotiations this week for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which starts today, with broad agreement on a range of actions they will undertake to finance a new global sustainable development agenda.
In the draft outcome document, countries pledge bold measures that would transform how global finance works by aligning it with sustainable development. A small number of issues remain for further discussion in Addis Ababa at the Conference, which will be held from 13-16 July.
In Addis Ababa, Member States and other stakeholders will also announce individual concrete initiatives and commitments that contribute to Financing for Development.
The outcome agreement will be adopted by all members of the United Nations at the Addis conference and will serve as the foundation for financing the ambitious sustainable development agenda built on 17 new universal sustainable development goals. The new agenda will advance sustainable development in all countries and aim to leave no person behind.
The Addis outcome is crucial for building momentum towards agreement on an ambitious post-2015 development agenda at a summit in New York in September and the conclusion of a comprehensive and universal new climate agreement in Paris this December.
The Addis Ababa Conference will be held at the highest political level with approximately 30 Heads of State, Heads of Governments and Deputy Prime Ministers attending, together with more than 110 Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation. In addition, approximately 1,000 representatives from civil society and the business sector are expected to be in Addis for the Conference, including for the International Civil Society and Business Forums.
The Financing for Development Conference will forge an enhanced global partnership for sustainable development that aims to universally foster inclusive economic prosperity and improve people’s well-being, while protecting the environment.
With the aim of mobilizing resources in all countries, in developing and developed countries, the Conference will look at all possible revenue sources, public and private, domestic and international.
The draft version of the outcome that will be adopted in Addis - the Addis Ababa Action Agenda - has emerged after many months of intense negotiations. It features a number of important policy commitments and deliverables that will contribute to Financing for Development and the implementation of the sustainable development goals, such as a new social compact to deliver social protection and essential public services for all and a package of proposals for least developed countries, including increased aid, steps to amplify foreign direct investments, and the establishment of a new technology bank for the LDCs by 2017.
One critical issue that remains to be resolved concerns the differing duties and responsibilities of countries, considering their differing circumstances and capacities. This issue is also critical for the climate change negotiations for a new universal climate agreement in Paris this December.
PHOTO: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the Global Civil Society Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the eve of the opening of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.
CREDIT: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.