NGO News Report :: Although today was the last day of the UNFfD (UN Financing for Development) Conference, but the discussion on outcome document to be called as AAA (Addis Action Agenda) formally was closed yesterday evening. G77 plus China group representing all developing and least developed countries led by Brazil, India and South Africa tried best for pursuing the agenda of Intergovernmental Tax Body, Sustainable Debt Mechanism, Measurable Commitment On Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) including Climate Finance and inclusion of CBDR (common but differential responsibilities) principles in the AAA. But the strong opposition of developed countries especially of UK forced the participating countries to agree on a compromised outcome agreement, virtually which bears no new or little hope for developing countries.
Bangladeshi civil society activists, Asgar Ali Sabri, Mohshin Reza and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury participating in the conference termed the AAA as a document of business as usual of developed countries and said, the Developed Countries somehow are reluctant to come up with new finance even though they are reluctant to take tangible action to tackle illicit financial flow. This will ultimately drain more capital from developing countries compared to what developed country provide as ODA.
Tove Maria Ryding, the Policy Advocacy Manager for Tax Justice of Brussels based European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD) said that, after three days of bullying, developing countries finally are run over. The consequence of the Addis Ababa outcome is that more than 100 developing countries will remain excluded from decision making on global tax standards, she added.
Dr Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to UN spoke as one of the panelists in a side event organized by ACG (Addis Civil Society Group), Third World Network and Eurodad held at Elilly International Hotel. He said, “There is a need for reform in global financial architecture and global governance where developing especially least developed countries have little policy space. He urged global community especially developed countries to come forward with a new challenging financing model like Marshal Plan to finance and support UN Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Implementation of SDG is imperative to save planet and humanity, he added in his speech.
The side event was moderated by Tessa Khan of APWLD (Asia Pacific Women on Law and Development) while the other speakers are Mr Adrian Nador, Ambassador of Argentina, Ms Bhumika Muchala of Third World Network and Mr Manuel Montes of South Centre.
