Thank you Chairman Belka for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Group of 24. Let me start by welcoming the DC’s focus on Financing for Development. We recognize the close cooperation and joint work by the IFIs and the UN and look forward to a continuation of this cooperation.
I would like to make some brief remarks:
- First, our Group welcomes the ambitious post-2015 development agenda and supports the focus placed on investment in people and sustainable infrastructure, among others, which will be transformative for our countries if taken to scale. We look forward to a credible financing framework to underpin their implementation, in which countries take the lead with the support of the global community, including to address collective challenges. Building a strong foundation for inclusive, sustainable growth, resilience, and reduced inequality needs to be at the core of this financing framework if we are to achieve solid progress towards meeting our future development goals.
- In particular, countries must take the lead in mobilizing domestic resources for development, an important source of development financing. We call for global support, including capacity building for addressing harmful cross-border tax practices, and curbing illicit financial flows. Even more importantly, ODA commitments need to be honored, and more ODA needs to flow to countries most in need. In addition, ensuring the health of our planet is also a crucial collective development imperative, particularly for countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.
- Second, our Group strongly supports the focus on investments in sustainable infrastructure as a major ingredient to inclusive, sustainable growth. In this regard, we call on the WBG and other MDBs to be ambitious in scaling up their technical support, financing and ability to support countries in leveraging private sector resources.
- Third, we stress that any future shareholding realignment formula must meaningfully increase the voting power of developing and transition countries and move towards equitable voting power, while protecting the voting power of the smallest poor countries and expect the forthcoming review and its roadmap to make progress to this end.
- Thank you.
Development Committee Spring 2015 – G-24 Intervention by Prepared for Delivery by Alain Bifani