13 May 2015: UN Member States continued their detailed discussion of the revised draft outcome document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD 3) on the second day of the first additional drafting session. Delegates considered paragraphs 10-38 of the document in paragraph-by-paragraph negotiations.

Some of the issues discussed by the delegates included: whether the FfD3 outcome should single out specific means of implementation (MOI) for the post-2015 development agenda or deal only with the policy aspects; whether domestic private finance should be approached together with domestic public resources, or with international private finance; whether to “substantially increase” public investment or “use public investment strategically;” the positive and negative impacts of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, and whether to address this in the FfD 3 outcome or only under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); approaches to putting a price on carbon; whether priorities for national expenditure should be decided in the FfD 3 outcome or at the national level; whether to upgrade the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters to an intergovernmental committee; and social protection and essential public services.

On establishing a platform to bridge the infrastructure gap, Australia, the EU, the Russian Federation and the US, among other countries, expressed concerns about a new initiative, with one asking to see what is “already in the refrigerator” before putting something additional into it.

The first informal drafting session is taking place from 12-15 May 2015, in New York, US.

The next sessions are scheduled for 26-29 May 2015 and 1-5 June, if needed. [IISD RS Story on First Day of Session] [IISD RS Sources] [FfD 3 Website]