Summary of Joint Meeting with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Financing for Sustainable Development
(based on the report of Earth Negotiations Bulletin)
At the opening of the joint meeting with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF, OWG Co-Chair Kőrösi referred to the similarities in the objectives of the work of the two groups of helping the UNGA shape the post-2015 development agenda. In addition the “global to-do list” to be compiled by the OWG will require a modus operandi and means of implementation. He asked whether every goal should have associated means of implementation, or in a separate goal, as in MDG 8 (global partnership for development).
Pertti Majanen (Finland), ICESDF Co-Chair, noted that as both bodies approach the report-writing phase, an exchange of information is especially important. The Committee is working in the spirit of the Monterrey Consensus, including looking at a range of financing sources beyond ODA, and it also shares the Rio+20 platform, in integrating the three dimensions of sustainable development. Majanen said the pressing issues for the OWG, such as poverty eradication, inequitable development, and protection of the environment are also shared by the Committee. The results of the two bodies’ work will be “amalgamated” as part of the UN Secretary- General’s forthcoming synthesis report on the post-2015 development agenda. He also referred to the Committee’s regional meetings being organized by the UN regional economic commissions and others.
Mansur Muhtar (Nigeria), ICESDF Co-Chair, gave substantive insights of the Committee, including challenges of quantifying financing needs; consideration of all sources of financing as mutually reinforcing and complementary; domestic resource mobilization; need for private investment as well as ODA; incentives to encourage the private sector to invest in sustainable development; innovative partnerships for mobilizing additional financing; impacts of “bad policies” and inaction; discussion of energy subsidies; and countries’ special issues and challenges, especially the middle income trap.
OWG Co-Chair Kamau commented that there had been no clear resolution as to how ODA will be reconsidered in the new development and financing frameworks. Meeting the challenges of global sustainability should “go way beyond ODA,” although the debate is centered on a North-South financing paradigm. He posed questions on managing the interplay between finance and other streams of MOI, and how to build the outcomes of the financing committee into the work of the OWG.
Statements were made by a number of delegates. Summaries of these are available in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.