19 February 2019: With the view to strengthen collaboration and coordination between the principal organs of the UN, the Presidents of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) met with the co-facilitators of the political declaration of the summit-level High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD), and the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum). Participants discussed areas of collaboration and upcoming work.
The meeting between UNGA President, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, ECOSOC President Inga Rhonda King, and the co-facilitators took place on 5 February in New York. According to a memo circulated by the UNGA President, the six co-facilitators were represented by:
- Sheila Gweneth Carey, Permanent Representative of The Bahamas and Olof Skoog, Permanent Representative of Sweden, for the political declaration of the summit-level HLPF (also called the SDG Summit and the HLPF Summit);
- Marc-André Blanchard, Permanent Representative of Canada and Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Permanent Representative of Ghana for the High-level Dialogue on FfD; and
- Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy and Christine Kalamwina, Deputy Permanent Representative of Zambia for the FfD Forum.
According to the memo, the UNGA President noted that several UNGA 73 processes and events would be critical inputs to the HLPF political declaration and the High-level Dialogue on FfD, such as the High-level meeting on Middle-Income Countries, the BAPA+40 (South-South Cooperation) and the mandated events on Commodities and Illicit Financial Flows. The memo also mentions that the six co-facilitators as well as experts would be briefed on preliminary findings of the Global Sustainable Development Report and of the “Financing for Development Report” by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
On the format and content of the political declaration that will result from the summit-level HLPF in September 2019, the co-facilitators noted that some Member States have signaled the need for a concise political declaration focusing on taking stock of successes, gaps, and challenges in realizing the SDGs, and committing to accelerated action on the 2030 Agenda. They noted that the political declaration would go further than the HLPF Ministerial Declaration of the past three years, and examine the challenges related to the 2030 Agenda’s implementation. They also expressed their intent to make the declaration communicable to the broader public and leverage all the upcoming ECOSOC events to feed into the “expectations of the HLPF Summit.”
On the process for preparing the political declaration, the co-facilitators from Bahamas and Sweden said there were initial discussions on the timeline for the process, and a proposal would be submitted to the UNGA President to inform Member States and other stakeholders. They also indicated that they would consult informally with regional groups, according to the memo.
On the FfD Forum, the memo states that co-facilitators discussed a tentative roadmap of negotiations with a zero draft scheduled before the end of March. It also reports that the co-facilitators for the Forum would collaborate closely with the co-facilitators of the High-level Dialogue on FfD.
On the two FfD meetings (High-level Dialogue and FfD Forum), the four co-facilitators in charge of these processes underlined the importance of building on the positive elements of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) on Financing for Development and of including relevant elements in the political declaration of the HLPF. The memo adds that the co-facilitators would convene a retreat with the objective to determine workstreams for concrete outcomes “for September.”
Also on FfD, the memo notes that the Retreat of the Group of Friends of Monterrey will take place on 17 and 18 March in Mexico City with the aim to: discuss the fourth Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) report on FfD; identify concrete deliverables and mandates for the High-level Dialogue on FfD; and discuss experiences at the country and sector levels in order to promote peer learning.
Following the 5 February meeting, the four co-facilitators of the FfD Forum and the FfD High-level Dialogue announced in a letter that they would convene the first informal consultations on 26 February to: brief delegates on the consultation process and roadmap of the intergovernmental negotiations on the conclusions and recommendations of the FfD Forum; and allow countries to provide their views on the process and on the desired format and result of the High-level Dialogue on FfD. The letter includes questions to guide the discussion including how the FfD Forum and the High-level Dialogue will complement the other meetings to be held during high-level week of UNGA 74, namely: the UN 2019 Climate Summit (23 September), the High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (23 September), the summit-level meeting of the HLPF, and the High-level Midterm Review of the SAMOA Pathway (27 September). The FfD Forum is scheduled for 15-18 April and the High-level Dialogue on FfD will convene on 26 September 2019. [Memo from the 5 February Meeting between the UNGA and ECOSOC Presidents and the Co-facilitators] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Joint Briefing between UNGA and the ECOSOC Presidents on efforts to improve alignment between the work of the UNGA and ECOSOC]