From developed to developing countries, no nation is immune from financial “gaps and vulnerabilities”, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday.
Issuing a year-end update to its flagship economic and social development report, the United Nations development arm for the Asia-Pacific region said today that resilient domestic demand and policy support supported the region notch a steady growth rate of five per cent but warned that risks remain to financial stability.
Addressing billions of illicit financial outflows from Africa is imperative as the continent needs domestic resources for its development, said the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who chairs a United Nations panel on the issue, urging the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and partner institutions to elaborate relevant action plans.
New and innovative sources of financing are needed to supplement decreasing official development assistance, United Nations officials said today calling for greater private funding and fostering international trade to sustain economic growth and fuel sustainable development.
The “active contribution” by more than 90 delegations at a three-day United Nations meeting augured well for a major conference on financing for development next year, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today at the conclusion of the meeting.
International financial institutions and wealthy States imposing structural reform programmes on poor countries or executing debt repayments should ensure that when doing so they do not undermine basic cultural, social and economic rights, an independent United Nations human rights expert said today.
Countries rich and poor continued their discussion of finance for development during the second day of a high-level dialogue organized by the General Assembly, focusing on an anti-poverty partnership sealed five years ago in Monterrey, Mexico.
The future of development financing is under discussion at a High-Level United Nations event in New York that has attracted the participation of ministers, central bank governors, government delegates and representatives of business and civil society, meeting to advance a 2002 agreement made in Monterrey, Mexico.
Finding new flows of development finance is crucial if the world is to meet its ambitious series of anti-poverty goals by the target date of 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told a meeting of an international group of rich and poor nations set up to promote more innovative ways of financing.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will attend a working dinner with a major committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) tomorrow and will open an all-day high-level conference Monday grouping the two institutions with multilateral trade and socio-economic bodies.
