Preparatory Committee for the

International Conference

 on Financing for Development      

7^th Meeting (Night)

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE CONCLUDES FURTHER SESSION ON ARRANGEMENTS FOR

DEVELOPMENT FINANCING CONFERENCE; PLANS TO BE REVIEWED IN JANUARY

International Gathering in Monterrey, Mexico, Will Review

Obstacles Faced by Poorer Countries in Mobilizing Resources for Progress

The Preparatory Committee for next year’s International Conference on Financing for Development concluded its resumed third session this evening by adopting, as orally corrected, proposals on the format of the Conference, the rules of procedure and the provisional agenda for the Committee’s next session, to be held from 14 to 25 January 2002.

The Conference, to be held from 18 to 22 March 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, seeks to address broad development concerns, primarily, obstacles faced by developing countries in mobilizing the resources needed to finance their development and to fulfil the social and humanitarian goals set by global conferences of the past decade.

Also this evening, in an oral decision, the Committee decided that in accordance with General Assembly resolution 55/245 B the Facilitator of conference arrangements will present the draft document on the outcome of the Conference by the end of November 2001, which will be considered by the fourth Preparatory Committee session in January 2002.

A large portion of this week’s resumed session was dedicated to discussions of the draft outcome document.  While some representatives said the document was a good starting point for negotiations, others said it placed an inordinate amount of responsibility on developed countries for meeting development goals.

Following the Committee’s decision today, the Conference Facilitator, Mauricio Escanero, said he would continue to work with delegates to produce a draft outcome that did justice to the Conference.  In the next presentation of the outcome, he would incorporate the recommendations that delegates had made this week.  Delegates’ comments on the draft outcome showed that there was a widening consensus being built in the Financing for Development process.

In a closing statement, the Co-Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, Shamshad Ahmad (Pakistan), said that during the session there had been a rich exchange of views on a very important subject that the United Nations had assigned

7^th Meeting (Night)

itself.  Through such a true exchange of opinions, delegates could reach consensus.  The crucial factor of the discussions was inclusiveness not exclusiveness, and he stressed the importance of including all stakeholders in the preparatory process, including Bretton Woods institutions, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations.  He hoped that work would continue in the same spirit of cooperation and dedication that had been shown so far in the Committee.

“We are well on our way to Monterrey”, he added.

According to the format of the Conference adopted by the Committee, the Conference will be divided into three segments -- a segment for high-level officials, a ministerial segment and a summit segment.  The Conference will be composed of seven plenary meetings and 12 interactive round tables.  There will be five plenary meetings at the summit segment, one plenary meeting at the ministerial segment and one plenary meeting at the high-level officials segment.

Hazem Fahmy (Egypt), Committee Rapporteur, introduced the draft report of the Committee for its third session.  This was also adopted this evening, as orally amended.

During the Committee’s five-day resumed session, it heard statements from Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai; United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson; the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Lennart Bage; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rubens Ricupero.

The Committee was co-chaired by Ruth Jacoby (Sweden).  The Vice-Chairmen of the Committee were Srgjan Kerim (The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Chuchai Kasemsarn (Thailand) and Marco Balarezo (Peru).

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