Intervention by Prime Minister of Nepal Rt. Hon. Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ as the Chair of the Group of LDCs at the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development 2023

New York, 20 September 2023

 

[Roundtable 2: Innovative Solutions to Unlock SDG Investments

Subtheme 2: Scaling up affordable and accessible international public financing for sustainable development and ensuring efficiency.]

 

 

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am making this intervention in my capacity as the Chair of the Group of LDCs.

This year’s High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development takes place against the backdrop of the confluence of multiple crises, including COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, conflicts in different parts of the world and intense geopolitical contest.

Offshoots of these crises, we are facing increased food and energy prices, economic and financial severity, slow pandemic recovery, low economic growth, debt unsustainability, increased unemployment, rising poverty, and widening inequality, among others.

Poorer countries face higher constraints of development financing. 

The commitments made in the Adis Ababa Action Agenda have remained unfulfilled. The SDG financing gap continues to be widening.

LDCs are hit the hardest by this gap.

They are falling far off the required resources to provide essential services to their people, to invest in SDGs and climate action.

Mr. President,

The need for greater public resource mobilization in difficult times cannot be undermined.

We need to mobilize more resources to achieve our development goals.

The Doha Programme of Action has aptly highlighted that the LDCs are largely dependent on public resources to finance development. 

External financing and international assistance remain our vital lifelines.

Therefore, I would like to make the following recommendations:

It is important to meet the commitments of enhanced financial flows to help implement the SDGs.

The ODA commitments to LDCs by our development partners must be met. We call for urgently realizing the target of 0.2 percent of GNI as ODA to LDCs, and for increasing the grant component in it.

Support in the form of concessional financing should be scaled up.

Multilateral development banks need to bolster their capital base and increase their grant assistance and concessional lending to LDCs.

IMF issued SDRs worth 650 billion US Dollars in 2021, out of which LDCs got 17 billion only, which is less than 3%. This stark inequity must be corrected to increase the financial safety net of LDCs.

IMF’s concessional and sustainability-oriented lending facilities must be adequately resourced, and their focus of operation should be the LDCs.

Many of the LDCs also need international support to address their debt distress.

The climate finance goal must be met. The adaptation finance should be doubled, and the Green Climate Fund should be replenished.

Besides, the loss and damage fund should be operationalized as soon as possible and LDCs need to get easy access to the climate finance resources.

Finally, Mr. President, realization of sustainable development goals is and must be our collective undertaking. While the world in general has become wealthier and more prosperous than ever before, we cannot let some section of the people live in dehumanizing poverty and hunger.

The SDGs were our common pledge to ensure that each one of the 8 billion people on this planet have access to the minimum decent living condition.

Financing commitments must be met if we are not to fail in this historic mission.              

Thank you for your attention.