The fifth annual Retreat of the Group of Friends of Monterrey was held virtually on March 17-18. It was organized by the governments of Germany, Mexico and Switzerland under the theme “Recovering for sustainability” as part of the Financing for Development (FfD) process.
The Retreat fosters intellectual debate on financing for sustainable development, and addresses the underlying systemic issues that are crucial for achieving a just and resilient global financial architecture. The delegates at the retreat participated under the Chatham House Rules, which helped build a consensus around the outcome document of the upcoming ECOSOC Forum on FfD to be held in June.
Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard inaugurated the retreat together with Jürgen Karl Zattler, Director General of International Development Policy, the 2030 Agenda and Climate Policy of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany; Ambassador Christian Frutiger, Deputy Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Ambassador Munir Akram, ECOSOC President; and Liu Zhenmin, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
Martha Delgado, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, participated in the closing event, together with Ambassador Satyendra Prasad, Permanent Representatives of Fiji to the United Nations, and Ambassador Yoka Brandt, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the UN, both co-facilitators of the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development.
Around 130 delegates from different sectors related to the Financing for Development process participated in the retreat, including UN Member States, CSOs, the private sector and experts from academia and international organizations.
The discussion at the retreat focused on green and sustainable recovery, private finance, debt and debt sustainability, systemic issues of development financing, science, technology and innovation, and risk-informed financing.
