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Systemic issues and debt in trying times: How can the FFD process help? (Side Event at the 2016 ECOSOC FfD Forum)


19 April 2016
13:15-14:30., Conference Room 8, General Assembly Building 1B
New York
, United States of America

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The Addis Ababa Action Agenda recommitted countries to addressing systemic issues, debt sustainability and the development financing agenda coming out of preceding conferences in Monterrey (2002) and Doha (2008), while promoting an emphasis on sustainable development. Against a gloomy outlook for the global economy - and the demonstrated failure of "business as usual" responses to get it back on its feet following the crisis of 2007-08 and the subsequent recession - the pursuit of a comprehensive reform agenda is increasingly urgent. The UN Financing for Development follow up process, as reformulated in Addis Ababa, holds promise as a venue to build consensus and advance policy proposals to address these challenges.

Financing conditions for most developing countries were favorable for several years under the "Great Moderation" and as high commodity prices boosted export earnings. Even after the global financial crisis, lax monetary policies by developed country central banks facilitated access to external finance at low cost, albeit often with high contingent risks. This has changed rapidly in the past year, as commodity prices have collapsed, capital flows have dried up, and the US Federal Reserve Bank has finally executed a long anticipated interest rate hike. Recessionary or subdued growth expectations are taking hold everywhere, not just in developing countries, reflecting deep uncertainties. The debt sustainability indicators of many countries have deteriorated fast, and outlooks are for further deterioration.

This side-event aims to reengage the wider development community in discussion of systemic issues, including debt, which are key aspects of the holistic financing for development agenda that are particularly urgent to address in these trying times.

Moderator:
  • Aldo Caliari, Director, Rethinking Bretton Woods Project, Center of Concern
Welcome:
  • Bettina Luise Rürup, Executive Director, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office
Speakers:
  • José Antonio Ocampo, Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Chair, Committee for Development Policy, United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
  • Stephan Ohme, Head of Division on Financing for Development, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development, Germany
  • Manuel Montes, Senior Advisor, Finance and Development, South Centre
  • Stephanie Blankenburg, Head, Debt and Development Finance Branch, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD
  • Bodo Ellmers, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Debt and Responsible Finance, Eurodad

 

Questions to be discussed:

  • What does the 'new global economy landscape' imply for our collective responsibility to prevent financial crises and resolve those that occur, in an equitable manner?
  • Following clearance by the US Congress of the 2010 governance reforms of the IMF, which further reforms of the international financial and economic architecture are the most urgent?
  • Through which international mechanisms can growing vulnerabilities to, and rising levels of, developing countries' debt burdens be addressed, without compromising commitments to the SDGs?
  • Which reforms of the international monetary system (in so far as this exists) are required to support job-creation, reduce harmful macroeconomic imbalances in the global economy and provide innovative financing?
  • What should or can be done about the widening and deepening of finanzialisation processes at the macroeconomic as well as firm levels, and their negative implications for equality and investment in the real economy?
  • What other urgent progress is needed to prevent new lost decades, and to promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the years to come?

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Co-organizer(s):
This event is jointly organized by the UNCTAD, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Addis Ababa CSO Coordinating Group - ACG and Women's Working Group on FFD (with Brot für die Welt, Eurodad and Center of Concern acting as facilitating organizations)

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