HLPF 2016 Side Event – Financing for Development to Ensure that No One is Left Behind

The side event ‘Financing for Development to Ensure No One is Left Behind’ will be organized as a high-level panel discussion on 18 July 2016 from 1:15 PM to 2:45 PM. Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP will moderate the session, and H.E. Mr. Oh Joon, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative, Republic of Korea, will deliver the welcome remarks. The panel will include finance ministers and senior Ministers from the Asia-Pacific region, an expert, and a private sector and a CSO representative.

Background

The outcome document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development: Addis Ababa Action Agenda encouraged regional commissions, in cooperation with regional stakeholders, to mobilize their expertise and existing mechanisms, which could focus on thematic aspects of the present Action Agenda. ESCAP has taken a leading role in the follow up process and implementation of the Addis Agenda in Asia and the Pacific. ESCAP has engaged with its member States through establishing a regional dialogue process to support the development of forward-looking strategies for taking concrete actions for the mobilization of financial resources for sustainable development at the regional level, while taking into account the sub-regional and national context.

Building upon the priorities and recommendations identified at the Asia-Pacific Outreach Meeting on Sustainable Development Financing and the Asia-Pacific High-Level Consultation on Financing for Development, respectively held in June 2014 and April 2015 in Jakarta, ESCAP, in cooperation with the Republic of Korea, held the First High-level Follow-up Dialogue on Financing for Development in Incheon in March of 2016. The Chair’s Summary from this High-Level Follow-up Dialogue was subsequently discussed further during the high-level side event Financing for Development Follow-up in the Asia-Pacific Region: Agenda for implementation of regional priorities at the inaugural ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum in New York in April 2016. This dialogue process has provided an important opportunity to gather regional momentum, scale up consolidated efforts and recalibrate the regional financial architecture to lay down a solid foundation for supporting implementation of the SDGs.

At both the ECOSOC and Incheon high-level meetings, Asia-Pacific ministers, central bank governors, and senior officials, including representatives from the private sector and civil society, underscored the importance of addressing the challenges and priorities of the countries with specials needs, namely, the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States in the Asia-Pacific region, for the implementation of the financing for development outcomes in support of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, a number of important regional priorities were identified, including:

Regional tax cooperation, and the role and framework of the proposed Asia-Pacific Tax Forum.
Enhancing financial inclusion and other forms of innovative financing mechanisms.

To further support the follow-up process at the regional level, this side event will provide a focused discussion on these two thematic areas. Further elaboration of these priority areas could provide a forward looking action plan to generate regional financing for the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.

Objectives

The objective of the side event on “Financing for Development to Ensure No One is Left Behind” is to provide a focused discussion on innovative financing sources, modalities and priorities in the Asia and the Pacific region for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.