President David Granger said the Third International Conference on Financing for Development is about “shaping the future we want for our peoples for generations to come” and advocated for further global action for sustainable development.
The Conference… “must make a fundamental contribution to the thrust towards greater global cooperation as we embark on an ambitious and transformative post-2015 development agenda that will seek to ensure that no country or no community is left behind,” he told the meeting which included Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Chair of the Conference; Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General; Wu Hongbo, Secretary-General of the Conference, which started in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Monday.
“First, we must renew global solidarity and our collective will to resolve global problems in a timely and effective manner,” he said, “If we are serious about sustainable development then we must be serious in our quest for mitigating the effects of climate change.” Granger asserted that as a sign of confidence in the collective commitment to implement the agenda, the Conference “will agree next September in New York and aim to reach in December in Paris, a once-in-a-generation agreement that will ensure that global temperature rise is contained within two degrees centigrade.”
The president also noted that while governments must exercise leadership, the requisite actions and investments cannot be executed by governments alone. “Other stakeholders must realise that their efforts will also be essential to delivering the future we want. The enterprise of development must count on the contribution of all segments of the society. It must empower local communities and harness the talents of the people, especially women and youth,” he said.
Third, he acknowledged that the achievement of the sustainable development goals will place heavy demands upon all countries. “Our efforts to achieve the millennium development goals taught us that significant progress is possible when the international community works together,” he said; adding that developed countries must continue to exercise real leadership in fostering international development cooperation and developing countries must continue to intensify their own efforts.
Granger noted too that the response to the demands of the time should be universal, explaining that this requires “making the investments to incentivize an irreversible paradigm shift in favour of sustainable development….and a commitment to complete the unfinished work of the MDGs, including in education, health, water and sanitation and food security.”
Guyana welcomes the focus of the draft outcome on these areas in addition to the emphasis on bridging the infrastructure gap, fostering sustainable consumption and production patterns and promoting micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Further, the president said, the establishment of a technology facilitation mechanism, the strengthening of the committee of experts on tax cooperation and the establishing of a dedicated forum within the United Nations to deliberate on the follow-up on issues for financing and development hold great potential to make the Addis Ababa Action Agenda transformational.
Guyana is also pleased with the provisions contained regarding countries such as LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, in special situations. However, the challenges faced by middle-income countries and the large number of small Caribbean states also merit the attention of the international community. “The issue of debt is of particular concern, as are the terms of trade which often work against the interests of small states,” he said.
