KUTESA: Mobilizing Resources for the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Apr 26, 2015
The President of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kutesa has outlined a new universal development agenda that presents a collective commitment to humankind and the planet.
By Vision Reporter
The President of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kutesa has outlined a new universal development agenda that presents a collective commitment to humankind and the planet.
In an article titled Mobilizing Resources for the Post-2015 Development Agenda for the world in the HORIZONS magazine http://www.cirsd.org/magazines, Kutesa stated that "we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change our world for the better. "
Kutesa, who is also Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister said that "as we formulate an ambitious and transformative post-2015 Development Agenda, we have to constantly remind ourselves that its successful implementation will largely depend on mobilizing adequate resources and mainstreaming the agenda in our national development plans."
He outlined the importance of hhe Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, to be held in September in New York; the Third Financing for Development (FfD) Conference, to be held in July in Addis Ababa; and the Twenty-first Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21), to be held in December in Paris.
Kutesa and Moon outlining the UN's Vision. Courtesy Photo.
THE ARTICLE IN FULL (download here)
Mobilizing Resources for the Post-2015
Development Agenda
Sam K. Kutesa
THIS is truly a historic and momentous year. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change our world for the better. And we must seize it. To do so, we need ambitious and successful outcomes from three interrelated processes: the Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, to be held in September in New York; the Third Financing for Development (FfD) Conference, to be held in July in Addis Ababa; and the Twenty-first Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21), to be held in December in Paris.
As President of the General Assembly, I chose “Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative post-2015 Development Agenda” as the overarching theme of the sixty-ninth session. Throughout my term, I have continued to underscore the importance of ensuring that this new agenda is not only ambitious, inclusive, and transformative, but-most importantly-that it is accompanied by adequate means for effective implementation.
The new universal development agenda, currently being formulated by Member States and other stakeholders, represents our collective commitment to humankind and the planet.
At the same time, we have to intensify and accelerate efforts aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the remaining period—or come as close as possible to doing so.
The MDGs, which were adopted nearly 15 years ago, have contributed to lifting over one billion people out of extreme poverty. Their implementation has led to significant improvements in access to education, health, water, and sanitation—among other areas. Nevertheless, progress has been uneven across the goals, countries, and regions.
Many developing countries—especially the least developed—continue to face a dual challenge. They have low human development indicators and require greater investments in sectors such as education and health in order to achieve the MDGs, yet they lack the adequate resources to do so. In many cases, the capacity of such countries to mobilize domestic resources is limited, and the support from external sources remains critical.
In recognition of this, the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—the main component of the post-2015 development agenda—build on the foundation laid by the MDGs, whilst expanding their scope, scale, and applicability.
An Inclusive and Transformative Agenda
Today, out of the world’s seven billion people, nearly 1.1 billion still live below the internationally accepted extreme poverty line of $1.25 a day. We must strive to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, and significantly reduce the number of people living below national poverty lines everywhere.
Together, we should spare no effort to ensure that the post-2015 development agenda is ambitious, inclusive, and transformative. It should improve the livelihoods of people worldwide, whilst protecting the environment.
At the UN Summit on Sustainable Development, held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed that “eradicating poverty is the greatest challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development,” whilst affirming their commitment “to freeing humanity from poverty and hunger as a matter of urgency.” In the outcome document of the Summit entitled The Future We Want, they also reaffirmed that “people are at the center of sustainable development and, in this regard, we strive for a world that is just, equitable and inclusive-and we commit to work together to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development and environmental protection and, thereby, to benefit all.” Thus, poverty eradication and the achievement of sustainable development in its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, were defined as the overarching objectives of the new agenda.
The proposed 17 SDGs are ambitious and can transform our societies and preserve our planet—if effectively implemented. They cover important priorities, including ending poverty in all its forms everywhere; ending hunger; promoting sustainable agriculture; ensuring quality education and healthy lives for all; achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls; universalizing access to water and sanitation, as well as affordable modern energy; promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth; delivering full and productive employment, as well as decent work.
Other key priorities include building resilient infrastructure; promoting industrialization; reducing inequality within and among countries; making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable; ensuring sustainable consumption and production; combating climate change and its impacts; conserving and sustainably using oceans, seas, marine resources, forests, and ecosystems; promoting peaceful and inclusive societies; providing access to justice for all; and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
The negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda are proceeding well. Member States have already agreed that the proposed SDGs will be the main component of the new development framework. It is envisioned that only limited “technical proofing” can now be made to the targets; already, the relevant indicators are being prepared by the UN Statistical Commission for consideration by the Member States.
The other components being discussed include a declaration in which world leaders will set out their vision, ambition, and commitment to implement the new agenda; the means of implementation (finances, technology development, and transfer, as well as capacity building); and a review and follow-up framework.
Mobilizing Adequate Resources
To successfully implement the ambitious agenda reflected in the proposed SDGs, a strong and sustained commitment will be required at all levels to mobilize the scale of resources needed: from political leaders, multilateral organizations, the private sector, civil society, and all other stakeholders.
The emerging estimates indicate, for instance, that the additional financing needed to eradicate extreme poverty will range from $135 billion to $195 billion every two years. Investments that will be required in critical infrastructure, including transport, energy, water, and sanitation, are expected to cost between $5 and $7 trillion annually.
In Africa, for example, the financing gap for infrastructure is nearly $95 billion per year. The unmet credit needs for small- and medium-sized enterprises are estimated to be around $2.5 trillion in developing countries, and about $3.5 trillion globally.
We also need to find ways of addressing the significant challenges that many developing countries face in accessing environmentally sound technologies. This could be done through a technology facilitation mechanism—the details of which Members States and other stakeholders are currently discussing. It will also be essential to build the developing countries’ science, technology, and innovation capacities and systems.
We also need frameworks for intellectual property rights that achieve the right balance between incentivizing private investment in innovation whilst maximizing the diffusion of technology. This will result in a win-win situation for both developed and developing countries. Technology development and transfer, as well as capacity-building, will be critical to achieving many of the SDGs.
As I have pointed out before, the positive news is that global savings—including foreign exchange reserves—remain robust at about $22 trillion a year, inclusive of public and private sources. The task that we have is to devise the right policies, measures, and instruments that can incentivize channeling some of these resources towards financing sustainable development.
Commitments & Deliverables
Significant financial resources and investments are evidently required for the successful implementation of the new development agenda, which should be mobilized from all sources—domestic and international, public and private. There is also wide recognition that while public sources will remain central in financing sustainable development, the private sector and other actors should also play a greater role.
Given its critical importance in supporting the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, we have to ensure the success of the Addis Ababa FfD Conference. We must strive for an ambitious outcome with concrete and actionable deliverables. In this context, participation at the highest political level, including heads of state and government, ministers of finance, ministers responsible for development cooperation, foreign ministers, heads of international financial institutions, representatives of the private sector, civil society, and philanthropic organizations, will be critical.
A variety of innovative measures and actions should be considered to increase revenue collection, improve budget efficiency, and combat corruption, tax avoidance, and illicit financial flows. Greater efforts will also be required to create an enabling environment for both increased domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI). In addition, we need to find ways of tapping into the resources that banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and capital markets, among others, can provide.
It is also essential to reduce the charges on remittances from overseas workers to between three and five percent of the amount transferred. Estimated at about $516 billion globally this year, remittances constitute an important source of transfer earnings for households in many developing countries.
Lastly, increasing domestic resource mobilization will be critical for financing the SDGs. In this regard, cooperation on tax matters, measures and strategies for improving tax collection capacities on the part of governments, and adherence to responsible tax-paying practices by companies, will be essential.
For many developing countries, international public finance remains an important source for financing global public goods. It is important to ensure that Official Development Assistance commitments are fulfilled in their entirety, and that the resources are effectively utilized and leveraged—including as catalytic financing.
International financial institutions and regional development banks will need to be more responsive in supporting countries’ access to resources—especially long-term financing for infrastructure at affordable rates—in order to implement the new development agenda.
In this context, we look forward to the proposals that the multilateral development banks—including the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund—are working on as part of their input for the FfD process. We also need to give attention to the increasing complex sovereign debt situation, which affects many developing, and some developed, countries.
Greater Private Sector Involvement
We have to find ways of enhan-cing the private sector’s participation in the implementation of the new agenda.
In many developing countries, the private sector employs about 70 to 90 percent of the workforce, whilst contributing around 60 percent of GDP. In view of the significant amounts of private capital for investment that institutional investors, companies, and foundations can provide, the role of the private sector is critical.
At present, only a small portion of invested assets of banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and transnational corporations worldwide are in areas related to SDGs. While businesses are keen on profit and shareholder value, ways should be found to incentivize their contribution to achieving sustainable development-building on the work being done by the UN Global Compact and other initiatives.
While some progress continues to be made towards the holistic integration of environmental, social, and governance issues in investment decision-making, the volume and scale of such efforts has yet to reach significant impact levels. By engaging and incentivizing businesses and investors to scale up investments embracing sustainability, more private capital is likely to be channeled towards achieving the SDGs.
It is encouraging that a number of initiatives are being undertaken in this regard-including by the UN Global Compact that currently brings together over 800 companies from 150 countries, the UN Conference on Trade and Investment, and the UN-supported Principles of Responsible Investment. One of the ways of incentivizing reallocation of private capital to sustainable development investments could be through enhancing risk mitigation mechanisms, such as the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
Increasing domestic and foreign direct investment can contribute significantly to achieving sustainable development. FDI, which constitutes the largest net flow of capital to developing countries—amounting to nearly $780 billion in 2013—can also bring technology transfer and capacity-building benefits. The challenge for many Least Developed Countries is that, taken together, they only attract two percent of global FDI flows.
We also have to harness and optimize the contribution of trade as an engine for sustained economic growth and development. A universal, open, and equitable trading system is essential to facilitate market access-especially for developing countries.
In this context, greater political commitment is required to conclude the Doha round of trade negotiations.
It is also important to consider greater involvement of the World Trade
Organization in contributing to the ongoing processes on the new development agenda and FfD.
Multi-stakeholder partnerships, with civil society, academia, and philanthropic organizations, will also play an important role in realizing the SDGs as a key component of the new agenda.
We need to build on and expand successful initiatives—such as the Global Initiative on Vaccination; the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS; the Roll Back Malaria partnership; and the Every Woman Every Child program—whilst optimizing the contribution of foundations and other stakeholders.
On February 9th and 10th, 2015, I convened a high-level thematic debate focusing on how to mobilize the resources required for implementing a transformative post-2015 development agenda. Many useful proposals and inputs were made by Member States and stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society, and academia.
As the negotiations on the July 2015 Third FfD International Conference in Addis Ababa proceed to the next stage, it is essential to remain focused on ensuring a holistic and action-oriented financing framework, underpinned by concrete deliverables, as well as a strong follow-up and review mechanism.
Combatting Climate Change
Our resolve to formulate and implement a sustainable development agenda will count for less if we do not address climate change. We now have incontrovertible scientific evidence—particularly from the 2014 Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—which shows that, mostly as a result of human activity, our planet is warming at an alarming rate. The report points out that many of the physical changes to our planet currently being observed are unprecedented—ranging from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and warming of the atmosphere and oceans, to diminishing snow and ice and rising sea-levels. Many countries are faced with frequent and prolonged droughts, while floods and landslides are becoming more common—to mention but a few of the most visible impacts of climate change.
The adverse impacts of climate change affect every country around the world—threatening food security and undermining efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. We must act now before it becomes too late; any delay in combating climate change will come at a great cost to us all.
In my own country, Uganda, the snow-capped glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains, highest peaks-at almost 17,000 feet-had a combined area of around 2.7 square miles at the start of the last century. They now occupy less than 0.4 square miles. And it is estimated that, if the current trend caused by atmospheric warming continues, there may be no snow glaciers on the mountain within the next two decades.
For some Small Island Developing States, such as Maldives and Kiribati, rising sea levels pose an existential threat to their very survival.
No country and no region will remain unaffected.
When I addressed the High-level segment of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) in Lima, Peru, in December 2014, I called upon Member States and the international community to summon the collective political will to effectively combat climate change. I do so again.
As we build up to a legally binding agreement on climate change at COP21 in Paris, under the aegis of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, our resolve towards mitigation and adaptation measures should not waver. Increasing financing for climate change technologies—including investment in renewable clean technologies—will be critical for many developing countries.
I will be convening a high-level event on climate change on June 29th, 2015, at UN headquarters in New York to maintain momentum and take stock of the progress at the mid-point between COP20 and COP21.
As we formulate an ambitious and transformative post-2015 Development Agenda, we have to constantly remind ourselves that its successful implementation will largely depend on mobilizing adequate resources and mainstreaming the agenda in our national development plans.
Article by h.e. Sam Kutesa Published in Horizons Magazine by The New Vision