Ethiopia: UN backed conference intends to wipe-out poverty by 2030
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 14, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The third International conference on financing for Development kicks off on Monday here in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa .
Being held for the first time in Africa, the conference has attracted over 5,000 high-level political representatives, including some 50 Heads of State and government delegates.
“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 UN-backed conference is expected to result in an inter-governmental negotiated and agreed outcome which should constitute an important contribution to support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In remarks at the opening session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told participants that 2015 should be a year “for global action” to ensure the intended global goals of advancing sustainable development in 189 countries.
“But, without resources, commitments will amount to little more than promises on paper,” said Ban stressing no one should be left behind.
“This conference is a starting point for cooperation and global action towards sustainable development,” Ban said, adding “We want to leave no one behind.”
Sudan Tribune has learnt that the yet to be agreed outcome of the conference, named as “Addis Ababa Action Agenda” will be adopted in September in New York.
World leaders are intending to raise billions of dollars to ensure sustainable development in developing countries.
The goal is to eradicate poverty by 2030, which critics down play the agenda as extremely ambitions.
However Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, disagrees with those critics.
Desalegn who also chairs of the Conference is optimist that the sustainable development agenda is attainable.
“I am not one of them. This is the right agenda for a world in transition. It is the right agenda for a world with the power, for the first time in history, to wipe poverty out entirely, and the right agenda for a moment in history when our future on this planet is no longer certain unless we embark on a serious change of course,” he told participants.
However, he called on world leaders to demonstrate the political will and strong commitment to ratify and implement the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
“If it is not, we will let down the people we all represent and will ultimately be blamed for years to come for our lack of seriousness. We will also seriously undermine the credibility of our key global institution, the United Nations,” said the premier.
The new agenda unveiled in Addis Ababa calls for Concrete commitments on finance, trade, governance, debt, technology, innovation, wider international cooperation on concerns related with climate, taxation and gender equality during the next 15 years.
According to the action plan, the world will look between one to two trillion dollars each year as the goals aimed to uplift millions of people out of poverty.
The document also urges developed nations to earmark a minimum 0.1 percent of their Gross National Income to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The four-day conference which is being held under a theme of “Time for global action”, will also discuss the World Bank’s Post-2015 Development Agenda.
This week’s conference will also feature some 200 other side events.
The Third international Financing for Development Conference after the 2002 Monterrey Conference in Mexico followed up by the 2008 conference in Doha, Qatar.
(ST)