Distinguished Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this principal-level meeting of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development (IATF).
Thank you for joining me on an extremely busy day at 51³Ô¹Ï Headquarters, and halfway through today¡¯s High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development.
The focus of our discussion today is preparation of our upcoming 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report.
You would have all witnessed, over the last several days, just how central financing questions have become to the UN agenda. Financing for development took centre stage during the SDG Action Weekend and remained a key theme throughout the SDG Summit.
You may have also noticed that interest in today¡¯s High-level Dialogue is higher than ever. And this interest is only going to increase further. Member States are about to decide on convening a fourth international conference on financing for development in 2025.
This fourth conference would be a major opportunity for the international community to agree on ambitious and politically feasible solutions to overcome some of the most pressing bottlenecks and challenges that are impeding implementation of the SDGs. The Inter-agency Task Force should be ready to advise Member States on just how to do so; and the mandate we received for this 2024 FSDR reflects just that. I look forward to hearing your perspectives on how the Task Force can best support Member States in the run up to a fourth FfD conference.
Dear colleagues,
At the FfD Forum held last April, countries tasked us to prepare a report that assesses progress in implementing financing for development outcomes going back to the 2002 Monterrey Consensus, as well as in follow up to the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, with a view to informing inclusive dialogues on a fourth conference.
In this light, we are suggesting three new elements for the 2024 report.
First, instead of an opening thematic chapter that does a deep-dive on a cross-cutting issue, we propose providing a substantive introduction that summarizes the key issues that may be most relevant to Member States. In this way, we can highlight the greatest challenges we face, along with common trends across the action areas of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda that have reshaped development financing over the last 20 years.
Second, we propose adopting a longer time scale for analysis, covering trends and relevant policy developments since 2000. The world has changed significantly in the past two decades. We have witnessed a rapidly shifting global macroeconomic and financing landscape, digitalization and disruptive technological change, and growing systemic risks, especially related to climate change, pandemics and conflicts. These trends have all profoundly affected financing for development, across all action areas. There should be a bit less emphasis on what has happened in the last several months, and more focus on ¡®the big picture¡¯.
Third, we suggest focussing recommendations on the questions and challenges that Member States could address in a fourth conference.
Dear colleagues,
In the year that I have chaired this Task Force, I have been impressed by the quality of the collaboration, and by the impact the FSDR is having on shaping financing discussions.
Our 2022 report on the ¡®finance divide¡¯ is still shaping discussions around the SDG Stimulus and beyond. And today, we can also see that the 2023 focus on sustainable industrial transformations was well timed.
I look forward to building on these past successes, and trust that the Task Force will continue in this outstanding spirit of cooperation and joint purpose. I am eager to hear your priorities and your ideas for our joint work. Given the limited time, I will ask you to be brief, to allow all partners a chance to participate.
Thank you!