Sustainable development conference kicks off in Ethiopia today
A new and stronger global partnership for sustainable development will be brought to light at the third international conference on financing for development (FFD) beginning today in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
“The conference will set a framework for financing sustainable development over the next 15 years,” said Wu Hongbo, conference secretary-general and United Nations under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs.
“The outcome will be a comprehensive package to aid sustainable development goals to be adopted in September. The framework will be ambitious and universally inclusive,” he said ahead of the four-day conference.
“No-one should be left behind.”
The new agenda will advance sustainable development in all countries, including Bangladesh, a foreign ministry official said.
The outcome of the conference will be crucial for building momentum toward agreement on an ambitious post-2015 development agenda at a summit in New York in September and the conclusion of a comprehensive and universal new climate agreement in Paris in December.
Thirty heads of state and government along with more than 110 ministers from finance, foreign affairs and development cooperation will attend the conference which will end on July 16.
State Minister for Finance Abdul Mannan is leading the Bangladesh delegation which will include the finance secretary, NBR chairman and senior officials of ERD and foreign ministry.
In addition, about 1,000 representatives from civil society and the business sector are expected to be in Addis Ababa for the conference.
“The conference is all about implementation of ambitious sustainable development goals. It is expected to provide means of implementation,” Alexander Trepelkov, a high official at the UN headquarters, told Bangladeshi reporters, via video conferencing recently.
“The year 2015 is a 'pivotal' year for fostering sustainable development, '' said Trepelkov, director of the financing for development office at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
“The agenda contains 17 goals,” he said adding that there are three aspects of implementation -- social, economic and environmental that would require enormous financial resources and other means of implementation.
“The international community is committing itself to help countries meet those challenges and international public finance is the most important for LDCs,” Trepelkov said.