Statement on Behalf of the Group of 77 and China by H.E. Ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo, Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations, Chair of the Group Of 77, at the Plenary Meeting in Consideration of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda for the Third International Confererence on Financing for Development
New York, 27 July 2015
Mr President,
I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
The Group of 77 and China is most grateful to Ethiopia for hosting the recent Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3).
Furthermore, we would like to thank your esteemed self, Mr President, for hosting this 99th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly, with a mandate to consider the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development that concluded its work on 16 July 2015. In this regard, we would like also to congratulate you, for your able stewardship and leadership with regards to the work and the overall business of this current General Assembly Session.
Mr President, let me take this opportunity to thank the two Co-Facilitators, Ambassadors Talbot and Pedersen, respectively, for their leadership in steering forward the financing for development process.
Mr President,
The Group of 77 and China would like to welcome the outcome document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, under the draft resolution A/69/L.82.
In our understanding, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda is complementary to and supplements the Means of Implementation for the post-2015 development agenda. In addition, as recognized in paragraph nineteen (19) of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the post-2015 development agenda, including the sustainable development goals (SDGs), can be met within the framework of a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development, supported by concrete policies and actions as outlined in the afore-stated Action Agenda.
The Group sought to be constructive in the financing for development negotiations, in order to ensure that a meaningful and ambitious Outcome from this Process could be reached, through good-faith inter-governmental deliberations.
We supported frank and transparent negotiations towards a meaningful Outcome.
The Group has also been consistent in its efforts in galvanizing all Member States to arrive at a common understanding that would ensure that financing for development remains relevant to the needs of developing countries. Our participation in negotiations that led to the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda was also based on our resolve to rid the world of poverty in all its forms. We call for this global partnership for development to be revitalized and re-invigorated, particularly as we advance towards the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda.
We must however, never lose sight of the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in order to leave no one behind. Indeed, the work on implementation that lies ahead of us will not be easy. Through the revitalized and re-invigorated global partnership for development, with North-South Cooperation in the centre thereof, we believe that more can be done to sufficiently finance development. This would make a huge impact in bridging global economic disparities and inequalities that continue to characterize the current world economic system. Adequate financing is therefore needed, and this is an area where developed countries should demonstrate leadership and unequivocal commitment, in order to assist all of us to finally defeat poverty. The private sector and South-South Cooperation should complement such efforts. Public international financing thus remains of paramount importance where the North should play a prominent role.
Mr President,
The Group of 77 and China recognizes that progress has been achieved. The Group is on record as noting that compromise outcomes have been achieved in a number of key areas, including, for example, the call for a global infrastructure forum, a more comprehensive treatment of the issue of debt sustainability, provision for capacity-building and a Technology Transfer Mechanism and dedicated mechanisms for follow-up and review with inter-governmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations.
However, the position of the Group is also on record that there remain a number of issues of principle that are important to, and fully endorsed by the Group that have not been adequately accommodated in the current text, including, but not limited to:
- The explicit re-affirmation of the key Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) in the context of the global partnership for development. This Principle remains relevant and valid and, indeed, is the basis for all international cooperation on sustainable development. An unequivocal affirmation of this Principle in the outcome document of the post-2015 development agenda is central, going forward;
- The need to maintain the integrity of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and post-2015 development agenda as separate processes, while acknowledging the need for stronger synergies between them;
- The need for development partners to meet current commitments and to upscale official development assistance (ODA), with binding timetables, including the re-affirmation that ODA is still the main source of development assistance;
- The need to address the diverse and specific development needs of Middle-Income Countries in a coordinated manner through the establishment of a United Nations plan of action towards that end that considers, inter alia, the multidimensional nature of development and poverty;
- The need to fully upgrade the Tax Committee into an intergovernmental body;
- The need to make an explicit reference to countries and people living under foreign occupation;
- The need to explicitly address the issue of lifting and terminating coercive measures, including unilateral economic sanctions; and
- The need to explicitly address the fact that climate financing is new and additional to and cannot be counted as ODA, nor can it be mixed with traditional development finance.
These agreed principles are fundamental to the livelihoods of our people.
Mr President,
In the context of the current inter-governmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, the Group of 77 and China would like to reiterate the following:
- With regard to the relationship and/or inter-linkages between the Means of Implementation aspects of the post-2015 development agenda and the outcome of the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development Process, that is the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Group holds the view that the integrity of the post-2015 development agenda and financing for development processes must be respected, as they are completely different in scope and purpose.
- The Group would also like to stress that the Means of Implementation for the post-2015 development agenda cannot be a substitute for, nor be replaced by, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Rather, the Financing for Development Outcome from Addis Ababa should support and supplement the Means of Implementation for the post-2015 development agenda. The Means of Implementation contained in each goal and in Goal seventeen (17) are a fundamental component of the post-2015 development agenda in their own right and an integral part of the "agenda" that we are currently negotiating.
The Group of 77 and China would like to reiterate that it has not abandoned its principled positions. We shall continue to strive for a just world economic system, in the spirit of multilateralism, to ensure that the global partnership for development is genuine and adequately resourced to assist in reversing years of chronic under-development and poverty that continue to affect developing countries.
I thank you.