GFDD and FUNGLODE participate on behalf of Civil Society Organizations with International Financial and Trade Institutions in the High-Level Meeting of the Economic and Social Council

On April 22, GFDD contributed to the Special high-level meeting of ECOSOC with the Bretton Woods Institutions, the World Trade Organization and the UN Conference on Trade and Development with a written contribution on its stance on the important issue of financing for development.

Civil Society came out in force on the issue for the annual ECOSOC meeting whose overall theme was “Coherence, coordination and cooperation in the context of financing
for sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda.” The three interactive high-level panel discussions focused on “World economic situation and prospects in the wake of the world financial and economic crisis,” “Financing for sustainable development, including leveraging of private capital, in the context of the follow up to the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference,” and “Global partnership for development in the context
of post-2015 development agenda.” The given high-level meeting brought together national Prime Ministers, Ministers of Economy and Finance, Heads of National Banks, the World Bank Executive Board, IMF representatives, intergovernmental institutions, civil society and the private sector. We were extremely pleased to see the outnumbered representation of civil society at the event that actively took the floor and voiced their views during the discussions.

The
opening of the meeting celebrated a special ceremony of inauguration of the newly renovated ECOSOC Chamber with remarks that were made by Their Excellencies;  Néstor Osorio, President of ECOSOC, Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, and Gunilla Carlsson, Minister of Development Cooperation, Sweden.

The opening and closing remarks of the actual event were made by Néstor Osorio. The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jan Eliasson, came to greet
the distinguished audience enunciating that financing for sustainable development requires sustainable resources and their effective use. Therefore, states are urged to fulfil their Monterrey commitment to allocate 0.7 per cent of their gross national income to the official development assistance which is crucial for reaching the Millennium Development Goals and important for the spur of the transformative change beyond 2015.

The high-level panel on the world economic
situation included Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance from Fiji, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Bolivia, Belize, Finland, Sweden and Austria. During the intense discussion, the honoured speakers agreed that while the global economy is recovering from the world economic crisis, the international financial and monetary systems need urgent reform to improve their transparency and legitimacy and to reflect better the economic realities of the twenty-first century through giving more
say to developing countries.

During the thematic debate on financing for sustainable development in the context of the follow up to the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference, presentations were made by representatives from the UN-DESA, UNCTAD and IMF with NGOs sharp participation. Here, GFDD was honoured in its capacity as an active member on the Committee on Financing for Development to make its contribution to the discussion with the statement about what “a
globalized economy needs today is a new financial framework with a more efficient financial market supervision and good corporate governance.

The Foundations presented their work on the impacts of innovative sources of financing for development, and put forth recommendations. In addition, GFDD and FUNGLODE, on behalf of the Committee for Financing for Development reaffirmed their support for the multi-stakeholder financing for development of the follow-up and
implementation process set out in The Monterrey Consensus, which is a major point of reference for international development cooperation.

STATEMENT BY GLOBAL FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT & FUNDACIÓN GLOBAL DEMOCRACIA Y DESARROLLO

The thematic debate on global partnership for development was
featured by representatives from the World Bank Group, UNCTAD and WTO. Civil society, too, enthusiastically presented their perspectives on the matter under discussion. The panellists and discussants urged states not to focus on growth, as recent global growth had proven unsustainable, but on social inclusion of people in development policies, as a path to follow.