The General Assembly, in its resolution 68/204, decided to convene a third International Conference on Financing for Development, the outcome of which will constitute a vital contribution and support to the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. In its resolution 68/279, the Assembly called upon the regional commissions, with the support of regional development banks and other relevant entities, to hold regional consultations in preparation for the Conference.
Since the adoption in 2002 of the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development, and following the Doha Declaration adopted in 2008 at the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, there has been much analysis of and deliberation over the extent to which the Africa has implemented the principles embodied in those agreements and the key challenges countries face in doing so. Following the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the General Assembly established the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing and tasked it with developing options for a sustainable development financing strategy to facilitate the mobilization of resources and their effective use in achieving sustainable development. Significantly, the strategy is expected to provide a basket of policy measures from which Governments can choose to finance their development priorities, especially in the context of the post-2015 development framework.
In preparation for the third UN Conference on Financing for Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission are organizing the Regional Consultation which will be held from 23 - 24 March 2015 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Regional Consultation for African stakeholders will be held as a side event during the eighth Joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development on 30-31 March 2015.
The event will provide a platform for high-level political representatives, Central Bank Governors and Chief Executive Officers, non-governmental and private sector actors as well as other relevant institutional stakeholders like civil society and researchers to discuss, deliberate and distill key messages from the Africa region in relation to financing for sustainable development. The outcome of this event will be a draft consensus statement which will be used to inform the intergovernmental negotiations that will take place at the third International Conference on Financing for Development, constituting an important contribution to and support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.
The consultation will be hosted by the Government of Ethiopia, and will comprise a formal opening followed by a series of plenary sessions.
