UN Member States held informal consultations on the third international conference on financing for development (FfD), exchanging views on the scope and timing of the conference.
The consultations were informed by a Background Paper prepared by the co-facilitators, Geir Pedersen of Norway and George Talbot of Guyana, considering different options for scope and timing, based on views previously presented by Member States.
28 April 2014: UN Member States held informal consultations on the third international conference on financing for development (FfD), exchanging views on the scope and timing of the conference. The consultations were informed by a Background Paper prepared by the co-facilitators, Geir Pedersen of Norway and George Talbot of Guyana, considering different options for scope and timing, based on views previously presented by Member States.
The second meeting took place on 28 April 2014, in New York, US.
On scope, delegates generally supported a proposal that the conference should contribute to the success of an ambitious post-2015 development agenda by providing a single, comprehensive, holistic, forward-looking approach addressing the three dimensions of sustainable development; and it should be built on the platform of the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and the 2008 Doha Declaration on FfD, and include all actors and all sources of financing – public, private, domestic and international.
The timing of the conference presented delegates with, in the co-facilitators’ words, a “chicken and egg problem.” Which should come first, they were asked, the post-2015 development agenda or the financing framework? Holding the FfD conference before the post-2015 summit – for example in the first part of 2015 – could provide a broad financing framework to apply across the range of potential goals, and facilitate a more productive discussion on the means of implementation in the context of the post-2015 development agenda. Several governments supported this timing. A 2016 FfD conference, on the other hand, could focus on the agreed post-2015 development agenda, including the SDGs. At least one government preferred to capitalize on the political momentum created by the 2015 summit and to have clear goals and targets before discussing the financial framework.
Member States also discussed avoiding duplication of the FfD discussion with the post-2015 summit and its preparatory process, and whether and how the conference should be linked with the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 21) in 2015.
The next informal consultation will take place on 13 May. [Letter from the Co-facilitators] [IISD RS Sources]