Roundup: UN chief sees renewed global development partnership vital to post-2015 agenda

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on governments, business sector and civil society to work closely together to push forward the post-2015 development agenda, saying that renewed global development partnership is vital to the new agenda.

The UN secretary-general made the statement as he was addressing a high-level meeting with global financial institutions and development agencies at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

"The post-2015 development agenda is ambitious. The financing needs are enormous," Ban said. "They can be met if we work together but we will not succeed unless we forge a partnership and learn the lessons of the current global economy."

The United Nations is leading all member states in hammering out the post-2015 development agenda, which focuses on sustainable development in the next 15 years, to replace the current Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight anti-poverty targets, by the end of this year.

"The global economy recovery continues to be sluggish," the secretary-general said. "We must ensure the availability of the required resources at all levels."

"Too much is at stake," he said, stressing the need to identify and tackle the root causes of the biggest challenges to economic growth, including heightened geopolitical tension, high youth unemployment and the employment gender gap.

"Strong engagement from all sectors here today illustrates the unprecedented cooperation that is critical to forging ahead on a sustainable development agenda," he said.

The annual high-level meeting, which was organized by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), gathered representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Deputy prime minister of Turkey, Ali Babacan, gave a keynote speech at Monday's meeting. which focused on coherence, coordination and cooperation in the context of financing for sustainable development for the post-2015 development agenda. Participants also discussed current challenges and emerging opportunities for the mobilization of financial resources. Discussions that will continue Tuesday were attended by several finance ministers, business leaders and civil society representatives.

The meeting comes ahead of July's Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference will be attended by heads of State and ministers and will aim to achieve objectives including a negotiated, agreed outcome and summaries of the plenary meetings.

The secretary-general said that the Addis Ababa gathering will be an opportunity to devise a politically inclusive development agenda.

"Only a concerted effort by all stakeholders will allow us to succeed. We must work closely together to make this year a year of global action," he said.

Also speaking at the opening of the high-level meeting Monday was the president of the UN Economic and Social Council, Martin Sajdik, who said the meeting comes at a crucial time in history.

"We all have been working closely together this year in order to chart a new era of sustainable development," Sajdik said. "We have to do our utmost to extend the unprecedented agenda. And it must be with the effort of national, regional and international development."

Sajdik said that negotiations of the financing framework have made the international community aware of the wide-range of issues it needs to tackle. Better coordination between public and private investments will maximize its developmental impact.

Past regional and global financial crises have shown that decades of progress can be undone very quickly, he warned. "Indeed, a strong fertile economy would be great ground for the post-2015 agenda," he said, but crises in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have caused humanitarian challenges of unprecedented proportions and devastated national economies.

"The appalling magnitude of unsolved economic and political challenges must not be ignored," Sajdik said. "In order to mitigate these challenges we must strengthen economic cooperation, create productive jobs, maintain financial stability." Endite