In order to strengthen that process, member states decided to establish an annual ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (FfD Forum) ‘with universal, intergovernmental participation, utilising the modalities of participation of the international conferences on financing for development, to be launched during the Council’s current cycle’ (132. AAAA). Moreover, member states decided that the ‘conclusions and recommendations will be fed into the overall follow-up and review of the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda in the high-level political forum on sustainable development [HLPF]’.The currently proposed timing for the inaugural FfD Forum is the week of April 18th 2016, under the overall theme of ‘Financing for sustainable development: follow-up to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda’. ‘The forum will consist of up to five days, one of which will be the special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions, WTO and UNCTAD, as well as additional institutional and other stakeholders depending on the priorities and scope of the meeting; up to four days will be dedicated to discussing the follow-up and review of the financing for development outcomes and the means of implementation of the post 2015 development agenda’ (132. AAAA).
Since 2002, the ‘Group of Friends of Monterrey’ has offered an informal space for dialogue to advance substantive topics. Without constituting a negotiation environment, it encourages and facilitates the exchange of ideas and approximation of views. These features have made the Group a useful tool throughout different stages of the FfD process.
It is in this context that Mexico and Germany, in close coordination with the President of ECOSOC and the UN DESA Office for Financing for Development, convened a retreat of the ‘Group of Friends of Monterrey’ in Mexico City from 28 – 29 January 2016, bringing together 105 representatives from capital cities, delegates from New York and participants from CSOs, the private sector and academia.
The objective of the retreat was to take stock of and progress towards a common understanding of the correlation between relevant outcomes of the international processes on development issues that took place in 2015, namely the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, the UN Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (as well as resolution A/Res/70/192). In addition, the retreat aimed to help identify synergies between the FfD Agenda and the 2030 Agenda, discuss the mandate and structure of the new ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development and develop ideas on how recommendations of the Forum could be shaped and delivered to the HLPF.
The retreat was organised around a series of plenary meetings, including contributions from the Chairs of ECOSOC and the UNGA Second Committee, the two co-facilitators of the AAAA negotiation process, UN DESA and representatives from academia. There were also two rounds of workshops, focusing on possible modalities for the FfD Forum, options for a monitoring framework and for the practical monitoring of AAAA commitments, and the challenges to policy coherence and implementation of the 2030 Agenda.