Ambassador Ahmed Ehab Gamaleldin, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN, presided over the fifth session of the UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Financing for Development, currently held in Geneva.
The Group aims to discuss financing for development by highlighting the financing needs for achieving the sustainable development goals, including climate finance, and exploring innovative means and tools that can be employed to provide financing for development, including mobilizing private financing and redistributing special drawing rights.
The Group also discusses ways to enhance the fiscal space of developing countries to enable them to achieve growth, recovery and sustainable development, especially through debt relief and building productive capacities.
The fifth session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Financing for Development is scheduled to discuss three main topics: The first is the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure stable and long-term financing for development.
The second item is how to strengthen national, international, public and private financing instruments to achieve green industrialization and structural transformation in developing countries.
The third is to discuss alternative/additional policies and initiatives that can be put in place to bridge the infrastructure gap in developing countries while promoting industrialization and productive employment..
It is worth noting that this group was established during the XIV UNCTAD Ministerial Conference in 2016 and is one of the achievements of developing countries during the Conference.
The Group makes agreed policy recommendations to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York.
It hosts a number of high-level officials and international experts specialized in the field of financing for development from various international organizations and financial institutions to offer their experiences and visions.
Member States are allowed to interact with them and discuss ideas and proposals to deal with the structural challenges of financing for development against the backdrop of the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the repercussions of climate change and the cost of addressing them, as well as the effects of the war in Ukraine on the global economy, energy and food prices and international financial flows.
