Luxembourg's Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider, yesterday participated in the opening of the 3rd Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa.
At the conference, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon, who visited the Grand Duchy last month, addressed the 193 UN member states, urging them to be flexible and compromise to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion and pave the way for a fruitful sustainable development summit in September in New York.
Minister Schneider then participated in a number of events in addition to the main conference with a meeting of heads of United Nations agencies and countries to discuss funding for the elimination of malaria. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and some heads of state including the President of Liberia presented the results of what has already been achieved and the continued efforts in the eradication of this disease, which still kills 600,000 people worldwide every year.
As Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Minister along with the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, held a press conference to present the EU's offer for this conference. This consisted of not only a collective EU re-commitment of 0.7% of GNI for investment in development cooperation, as well as a number of important contributions in the fields of environment, trade, and others.
Romain Schneider spoke at the round table of all conference participants on the theme of "Global Partnership and the Three Dimensions of Sustainable Development." In his speech he stressed the concept of "new social compact" included in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda which provides for the establishment of national social protection systems and calls for investment in essential public services. He concluded that the new global partnership will provide essential financial and non-financial engineering for successful social and sustainable inclusive development.
Minister Schneider later attended a high-level conference, hosted by Canada, Norway, the United States and the World Bank and in the presence of the Secretary General of the United Nations, on the need to invest in every woman, child and adolescent. The day's events were concluded with an evening banquet hosted by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, which was attended by all the heads of the delegation.
Photo by Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (Luxembourg's Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider)
