29 March 2017: In preparation for the UN Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) second annual forum on financing for development follow-up (FfD Forum), an inter-agency task force has released a consultation draft report on “progress and prospects” for FfD. Consultations on the outcome of the Forum will begin on 4 April 2017.

The 2017 FfD Forum will convene from 22-25 May 2017, in New York, US. The Forum is mandated by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) to produce intergovernmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations, which feed into the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development’s (HLPF) follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On 28 March, ECOSOC President Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava appointed two co-facilitators, Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, Permanent Representative of Belgium, and Jerry Matthews Matjila, Permanent Representative of South Africa, for the preparation of draft conclusions and recommendations of the Forum and consultations among Member States to reach intergovernmental agreement on that draft. At the first informal consultation on 4 April, delegations will be asked to provide views on the content and format of the conclusions and recommendations, and the modalities for reaching agreement, according to a letter from the co-facilitators.

Also in preparation for the Forum, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on FfD is preparing a report to assess progress under each chapter of the AAAA. The draft report addresses impacts of “the global context” on development finance, along with cross-cutting themes of investment, the social compact, and gender. A consultation draft is available online as an advance, unedited note of the UN Secretary-General, along with a compilation of key messages and recommendations. Comments by stakeholders are invited until 7 April 2017. An online annex to the report provides monitoring of the full set of AAAA commitments and actions.

The draft report recommends measures to directly ameliorate the living conditions of the poor and vulnerable, such as social protection floors.

Among its findings, the report notes that countries are taking actions on the AAAA policy commitments and “have started to bring them together into coherent implementation frameworks.” However, the “challenging global environment” in 2016 had significant impacts on national implementation efforts. National efforts supported by multilateral cooperation for sustainable development could “help change the trajectory of the global economy and support countries toward achieving the SDGs,” it argues, and increased investment should be complemented by measures to “directly ameliorate the living conditions of the poor and vulnerable, such as social protection floors.”

The Task Force is providing a series of technical briefings related to the report’s preparation, on: domestic and international private business and finance (3 April); international development cooperation; and data, monitoring and follow-up (4 April); and domestic public resources (6 April). [Letter on Appointment of Co-Facilitators] [Letter on First Informals] [FfD Forum Information] [Advance Unedited Note of Secretary-General] [Official Report]