Without ensuring that financing for development compliments the needs of sustainable development, it will be impossible to make the transformative change that governments committed to in 2015. SI UN Rep Marie D’Amato-Rizzi attended the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum) which followed up on decisions made at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa in July last year. Marie reports here for Soroptimist International.

 

Image: the inter-governmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations of the FfD Forum being adopted on the 20 April 2016.

"The Inaugural meeting of the FfD Forum took place at the United Nations in New York.  Its purpose was to address the follow-up and review of the Financing for Development outcomes and the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  The first day of the three-day programme included presentations by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development.  The second and third days consisted of six interactive round tables and panel discussions.  Civil society organisations and representatives were able to ask questions and make oral interventions during the interactive segments.  At the conclusion of the Forum, inter-governmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations were presented which will be fed into the overall follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the High-level Political Forum. 

Image: Please click on the image above to read and download the agreed conclusions for the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development. 

There were some areas of concern for civil society, and as the focus is on how best to finance a new international development approach, there are a lot of questions too. Civil society’s questions, concerns, and comments included: 

o  Concerns that the Forum doesn’t recognize the realities outside the UN building such as falling commodity prices, migration, and so on. Of course international programmes that fund development are important, but there are other financial issues that alter the impact and benefits development can give. If these are not considered properly, then FfD programmes will be less effective, and progress will be slower. 

o  There were also concerns that the drafts of the outcome document are not substantive – it is important that there are substantive outcomes to encourage strong actions. In particular actions are needed to ensure the most vulnerable, including women and girls, fully benefit from sustainable development. Ultimately, it is how development is financed that will direct whether women and girls do fully benefit. 

o  Some were concerned that the outcome document, which should be the conclusions from the Forum, was actually being done separately. This raises questions about how, and whether, inputs provided from governments, civil society and other experts were included. If not, then who decided the content? This process did not reflect the inclusivity and openess of previous UN events. 

The FfD Forum was informed by the report of the Inter-agency Task Force
on Financing for Development. Please click on the image below to read the report.

 

The process was supposed to unlock the means of implementation to realize the aspirations expressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development but from civil society’s point of view, however, the Forum did not live up to expectations.  The outcome document has no substance and did not draw from the richness of Forum discussions.  The co-facilitator from Benin said, “Since this is an inaugural Forum, the outcome document has no substance (i.e. there is no data yet available for 2015), Member States are just laying down the tracks for future Forums.”  Although this is understandable, it does not inspire enthusiasm for future fora.

It is more than clear that effective financing for development is critical for achieving the 2030 Agenda.  The difficulties in agreeing the ‘how’, ‘what’ and ‘when’ of implementing sustainable development reveals how lofty the Sustainable Development Goals are.  Only reaffirming that ‘no one should be left behind’ is not enough; discussions on how the SDGs are achieved need to be conducted better in future in order to drive unified action. 

What we witnessed was a political stalemate in the informal negotiations;  we challenged member states to exact more from this follow-up process and to be more deeply involved. This is essential for people, and especially women and girls, in developing communities to experience progress towards a sustainably developed world. Insubstantial outcome documents do not do that." 

Marie D’Amato-Rizzi, SI UN Representative, UN New York Center