25 April 2017
Friends of Monterrey Group Discusses SDG Financing Needs
Photo by IISD/ENB | Sean Wu
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The second retreat of the Friends of Monterrey Group took place in Mexico City, Mexico, prior to the meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development.

The retreat sought to “take stock of and progress towards a common understanding of the correlation between relevant outcomes of the international processes on development issues that took place in 2015”.

23 April 2017: The second retreat of the Friends of Monterrey Group brought together government authorities, UN officials and experts from multilateral bodies to discuss the challenges of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which was adopted by the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in July 2015.

Ambassador Ulises Canchola, Acting Director of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), chaired the event. Other participants included Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Michael Gerber, Switzerland’s Special Envoy for Global Sustainable Development, Stephan Reichert, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ambassador Marie Chatardova, the Czech Republic’s Permanent Representative to the UN and Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and Ambassador Dian Trianyah Djani, Indonesia’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

Bárcena highlighted that financing the 2030 Agenda “requires a profound shift in the means of implementation, including the international trade system and the conditions that govern the transfer of knowledge and technology from developed countries to developing nations.”

In her statement at the event, Bárcena highlighted that financing the 2030 Agenda “requires a profound shift in the means of implementation, including the international trade system and the conditions that govern the transfer of knowledge and technology from developed countries to developing nations.” She suggested that the region’s taxation systems need to be improved “to increase collection and reduce fiscal evasion and avoidance, estimated at 6.7% of the regional gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 (some $340 billion dollars), along with illicit flows.” She also highlighted that the “middle-income country” designation, which includes the majority of countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, has prompted a relative decline in access to traditional forms of financing, such as official development assistance (ODA), while the emergence of innovative mechanisms and new actors, funds and financing instruments introduces the need for a reorganization of the financial architecture for development.

The two-day event took place in Mexico City, Mexico, prior to the meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, which will take place in the same location, from 26-28 April 2017.

The first retreat of the Group of Friends of Monterrey convened in Mexico City, Mexico, from 28-29 January 2016. That meeting brought 105 representatives from capital cities, UN Headquarters in New York, US and civil society representatives. This retreat sought to “take stock of and progress towards a common understanding of the correlation between relevant outcomes of the international processes on development issues that took place in 2015.” [ECLAC Press Release] [Government of Mexico News on first retreat] [Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development]


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