Wu Hongbo Named Secretary-General of Third International Conference on Financing for Development

On 5 September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon designated Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the Secretary-General for the third International Conference on Financing for Development.

The Conference, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 13 to 16 July 2015, will seek the adoption of a comprehensive financing framework to support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.  At the Conference, participants will review the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development and address new challenges and emerging issues related to the mobilization and effective use of financial resources for sustainable development in its three dimensions:  economic, social and environmental.  The outcome of the Conference will be a critical milestone for the summit on the post-2015 development agenda in September 2015.

The reports of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing and of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the synthesis report of the Secretary-General, will provide important inputs to the preparation of the Conference.  The preparatory process, under the auspices of the President of the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, will include substantive thematic sessions and informal hearings with civil society and the business sector up to March 2015, as well as drafting sessions on the outcome document in January, April and June 2015.  The Department of Economic and Social Affairs, through its Financing for Development Office, will work closely with all relevant stakeholders, within the United Nations system and beyond, toward the success of the Conference.