The Ethiopian Presidency of the Conference on Financing for Development took place yesterday, with various groups of the Member States struggling to find a consensus on the basis of a document prepared by negotiators in New York.
After much back and forth and an amendment made to the final text with regards to the expert committee of the UN on international cooperation in tax matters, an agreement was finally reached at the Main Committee yesterday evening. The Conference will endorse the agreement later today, solidifying the approval of the Addis Ababa Action Plan.
Luxembourg's Ministry of Cooperation and Humanitarian Action reported that this agreement, made at the first of the three major conferences that will be taking place in the second half of 2015, bodes well for the next steps in September which will target the objectives of sustainable development, and those that will focus on climate change at the end of the year.
Luxembourg Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider, has been heavily involved in actions during the three day conference, held from 13 to 15 July 2015 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, including giving a talk on "Global Partnership and the Three Dimensions of Sustainable Development" and signing a partnership agreement on the 'emergency.lu' project with Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Lacy Swing.
Minister Schneider was also engaged in various conference consultations on Wednesday. He co-signed the Addis initiative on taxation and co-chaired a panel on financing equitable access to healthcare.
Later that day, the Minister met a delegation of Concord, the European Confederation of NGOs, to address the various subjects under discussion in Addis and their transcription into EU programmes, including under the Luxembourg Presidency.
Photo by Ministry of Cooperation and Humanitarian Action (Romain Schneider (Second from right) with Concord delegation)
