UN official expects development financing conference to yield comprehensive outcome

When senior government officials gather in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa next week for the Financing for Development conference, they will consider a comprehensive framework spanning domestic and international, public and private financing, Wu Hongbo, UN under-secretary- general for economic and social affairs, told journalists here Tuesday.

"The outcome will be a comprehensive package in support of sustainable development goals to be adopted in September," said Wu, who is also the secretary-general of the upcoming conference, referring to a set of 17 social, economic and environmental goals to be adopted by UN member states later in 2015.

"The financial resources that will be required will come from public international, public domestic, and private international and private domestic," he told a press conference.

The Financing for Development conference will take place on July 13-16. More than 110 ministers of finance, foreign affairs, development cooperation or similar portfolios will take part.

The upcoming event, known as the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, will gather high-level political representatives, including heads of state and government, and ministers of finance, foreign affairs and development cooperation, as well as all relevant institutional stakeholders, non- governmental organizations and business sector entities. The conference will result in an intergovernmentally negotiated and agreed outcome, which should constitute an important contribution to and support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, which is expected to be adopted in September as the global program to replace the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of this year.

Wu said member states were in agreement that domestic financial resources were of primary importance on the agenda.

"One point that's agreeable by all of the member states is that the mobilization of financial resources takes place basically at a domestic level," he said.

Central to domestic public finances are taxes, and Wu expressed the wish that member states would reach consensus on international tax issues, which feature in the zero draft of the outcome document.

"This is an important area where if mishandled would enormously affect the implementation of sustainable development and also would block the way for the economic development of countries," Wu said.

"I have my fingers crossed that we will reach consensus that will be acceptable to both sides (on taxation)," he said.

Meanwhile, Wu also cautioned against putting a specific figure on the conference, both in terms of the overall funds needed to achieve sustainable development and in terms of the contributions expected through official development assistance -- aid money made up of donations and concessional loans.

Considering the sustainable development goals cover environment, social and economic aspects, Wu said the amount needed would be subject to specific conditions, as well as to other aspects such as efficiency. He added that if climate change is also considered than the amount needed would be quite different.

There was "a strong call for donor countries to scale up their efforts to fulfill their targets" and that there was also a "need to mobilize the private finance resources", Wu said. But he added the focus of this conference was more on enabling policies and policy mechanizations rather than on pledges.

The policies discussed at the conference would include policies to guide the private sector internationally and domestically in areas such as foreign direct investment. In part, these policies will aim to ensure that public finances are protected from losses.

"They will not see the scenario that the private sector will take all the benefits and the governments will take all the loss," Wu added.

In order for the conference outcome to be successful, Wu said there is a need in setting up mechanisms to ensure what is agreed in Addis Ababa is implemented.

"The agreement to be adopted in Addis Ababa needs a strong accountability and a follow-up mechanism," he noted. Endite