Ina Parlina and Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali | World | Thu, March 28 2013, 11:39 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 20
More solid, binding and holistic financing schemes are needed to accelerate the development targets set in the post-2015 framework, leaders said.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Wednesday that innovative ideas on financing the new integrated global development agenda were crucial to the three-day talks in Bali, which began Monday.
“Broader and more effective partnerships and greater policy coherence through better and more transparent and innovative financing instruments” are needed to make the best of available resources, she said in her opening speech.
Sirleaf said that challenges remained as governments needed to move to a new partnership framework that involved new actors sharing common principles and commitments.
Sirleaf is a co-chair of the UN High Level Panel mandated to recommend a post-2015 global development agenda, along with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who could not attend the Bali talks. The year 2015 was the UN designated deadline to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Through a video shown during the talks, Cameron also highlighted the importance of a broader financing system. “As we think about fostering partnerships, I hope we support a greater role for private sector investment as the best root to sustainable growth,” he said
He added that as a new global compact, each stakeholder had a part to play in securing sustainable development.
“For my part, I would use the G8 presidency to ensure that we put our own house in order with freer, fairer trade, and greater transparency, and companies paying their taxes properly,” Cameron said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said via video that they needed to have a more clear financing system to speed up achievement of the MDG targets.
There had been several ways to fund the programs specifically designed to combat poverty, including the South-South cooperation, innovative financing and public private partnerships.
“Transformational public private partnerships are growing fast, and this is not a zero sum game. Public funds can leverage private funds, and private funds can in turn attract public money,” Cameron said.
Since the first day the MDGs programs took effect, the global development partnerships were realized mostly through aid funds from the OECD Development Assistance Committee from 23 rich countries. The target fund allocated to finance the programs is US$300 billion, but as of 2011, only $133.5 billion could be collected.
Yudhoyono also indicated the importance of the private sector in helping to meet the targets.
“The transformation should involve sustainable growth with equity, transparent management of natural resources, and the private sector’s active contribution,” Yudhoyono said.
Unilever CEO Paul Polman, who sits on the 24-member panel, told the private sector leaders forum that many companies had indicated a willingness to take part in the global development agenda.
Separately, international organization Oxfam also called for a clampdown on tax dodging by multinational companies and fairer, more effective tax systems in poor countries to mobilize the resources needed to achieve post-2015 global development goals.
Oxfam also urged binding commitments for all countries to meet the targets.
Oxfam’s Policy Coordinator for Asia, Ziaul Hoque Mukta, said any progress in the MDG achievements had been undermined by the global economic crisis, aid cuts and multinational tax dodging that drains billions out of developing country economies every year.
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