Mr. Wu Hongbo Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Secretary-General for the International Conference on Small Island Developing States

Remarks
Opening of the Fifth session of the
Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing

4 August 2014, New York

Excellencies,
Distinguished Experts and Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honour to address the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing.

This week, you will finalise and adopt the Committee’s report.

I would like to reiterate the importance of your report for the broader work on the post-2015 development agenda. Discussions have advanced significantly since you last met in May. In this regard, allow me to update you on the ongoing processes.

In the road map on the post-2015 development agenda that Members States adopted last year, they emphasized their determination to craft a strong agenda, built on a single framework and set of goals, universal in nature and applicable to all countries. And this, is with clear recognition of the intrinsic inter-linkage between poverty eradication and the promotion of sustainable development.

The intergovernmental negotiations to arrive at this agenda will commence in the fall, and will culminate in the adoption of the post-2015 agenda. They will be complemented by the preparations for the third International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 13 to 16 July next year.

Your report, as well as the report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, and the Secretary-General’s synthesis report – to be released at the end of the year – will provide important inputs and set the stage for these negotiations.

As you know, the Open Working Group successfully concluded its work just two weeks ago. It agreed on a set of 17 proposed sustainable development goals and 169 associated targets.

The Open Working Group thus completed its mandate, bringing to a successful close, and at times, a very challenging process.

Proposed goal 17 of the Open Working Group report speaks to the means of implementation and the global partnership for sustainable development.

It spells out targets in the areas of finance, technology, capacity building, trade, and systemic issues. In addition, specific means of implementation are associated with each of the other 16 goals.

In formulating the means of implementation, many Member States noted your work specifically – and look forward to your report to complement the set of goals and targets – by providing a strategic framework for financing for sustainable development.

Your report and the options it proposes for a sustainable development financing strategy need to take into account the financing targets spelled out in the report of the OWG.

The intergovernmental negotiations will no doubt draw on the numerous concrete policy options for an effective sustainable development financing strategy, which you are tabling for consideration. I urge you to retain a high level of ambition in this final stage of your work.

By presenting both a strong conceptual framework and a wide range of policy options, you can contribute to enabling intergovernmental agreement on the means of implementation necessary to achieve sustainable development for all.

Distinguished Experts,

Your report and the conceptual framework and strategic approach to financing for sustainable development that it puts forward will also be a critical input to the preparatory process for the Financing for Development Conference. The outcome of the Conference should make an important contribution to the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.

I wish you a productive session.

Thank you very much.

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