UN Financing for Development Outcome
(Addis Ababa Action Agenda - AAAA)
Agreed to on July 16 in Addis Ababa
The Bad and the Good (mostly bad)
Critical Issues
Did not acknowledge common but differentiated responsibilities
It was not a transparent process
Northern / developed countries overwhelmed the G77 (the bloc of 134 developing countries, including China)
Sense of backsliding from Monterrey and Doha, rather than transformative progress
Addresses gender equality in terms of economic benefit rather than human right
Does not tackle structural barriers to gender equality
Lacks integrated, consistent and explicit human rights based approached across the board.
Fails to affirm the principles of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities in Financing for Development, and in so doing fails to support the Post-2015 SDGs
Lacks business accountability on environmental standards
Does not establish an international tax body that could stop illicit financial flows
Does nothing to democratize the international space for norm-setting on tax cooperation at all
Does not ensure tax justice and equity, which are particularly significant for women and other marginalized groups
Ambiguously addresses climate and biodiversity finance
Does not undertake to assess human rights impact or sustainability of trade agreements, nor does it eliminate investor-state dispute settlements clauses
Strong emphasis on role of private sector
“….member states will ensure gender equality and women’s and girl’ empowerment’ (first para AAAA)
Established a UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism to address global systemic issues and enable developing countries
Monterrey, Doha and Addis Ababa will be seen as a whole compact that will be followed up in an established follow up process.
Civil Society was a significant actor in the FfD Process and was able to:
drive key issues that became central to the negotiations
provide technical knowledge on issues under negotiation
raise awareness and impact public opinion
The plenary was not able to reach agreement on:
The Intergovernmental Tax Body, which remains without proportional regional representation.
Common but Differentiated Responsibility, which would have put greater responsibility on developed countries for not only climate but also development finance - particularly relevant for the SDGs.
There was a lot of pressure by the General Assembly for the conference to come to an agreement, which limited the G77’s opportunities to push back on many issues. The Group filed a statement indicating as much, which will weaken AAAA from the start.
Many groups comment on AAAA
Civil Society Formal Response to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development
“We, members of hundreds of civil society organizations and networks from around the world engaged in the Third FfD Conference, would like to express our deepest concerns and reservations on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, based on both our ongoing contributions to the process and the deliberations of the CSO FfD Forum (Addis Ababa, 10-12 July 2015).
The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) lost the opportunity to tackle the structural injustices in the current global economic system and ensure that development finance is people-centred and protects the environment. It does not rise to world’s current multiple challenges, nor does it contain the necessary leadership, ambition and practical actions. It undermines agreements in the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration and it is almost entirely devoid of actionable deliverables. We regret that the negotiations have diminished the FfD mandate to address international systemic issues in macroeconomic, financial, trade, tax, and monetary policies, while also failing to scale up existing resources and commit new financial ones. The AAAA is also deeply inadequate to support the operational Means of Implementation (MoI) for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, exposing an unbridged gap between the rhetoric of the aspirations and reality of the actions. “
Women’s Working Group on Financing for development complains that it lacks a human rights based approach.
UN Women did not explicitly criticize but reiterated that there are previous commitments that are already in place, such as the Political Declaration 59th CSW and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. UN Women highlighted that AAAA further committed Member States to gender equality and plans to work on the implementation of gender equality commitments and the strengthening of support for gender equality and women’s empowerment institutions.
Interesting video on development justice that summarizes many of the issues: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2cEDbIW04