RESULTS Top Five Moments From Financing For Development Conference

Over 6,000 global leaders, decision makers, government officials and civil society representatives (including RESULTS UK) gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the first of three major international summits in 2015; The Third Financing for Development Conference (FFD). Steve Lewis and Laura Kerr share their top five moments from the conference. 1. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks at the Civil Society Conference The weekend before the conference, nearly 1,000 activists from about 600 civil society organisation from across the world gathered to discuss our hopes and objectives were for FFD. We agreed on our joint priorities and fed into a joint civil society statement which was read out during the plenary of the conference.

On the Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Ambassador Geir Pedersen of Norway, co-facilitator of the FFD conference, addressed a packed room of campaigners and advocates with their own ambitions and the current state of negotiations on the draft outcome document from the conference. They both explained the ‘critical importance’ of the conference and encouraged civil society to ‘use our voice’ to ensure we have a successful outcome in Addis and for the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change negotiations later in the year.

2. The Launch of Who Pays for Progress? Monday 13^th July was the first day of the conference, and also the day RESULTS UK and partners KANCO and WACI launched our new report, Who Pays for Progress? High level representatives helped launch our report, including, Tim Evans, Senior Director, Health, Population and Nutrition at the World Bank group; Christoph Benn, Director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Julius Court, Acting Country Director, DFID Ethiopia; Philippe Douste-Blazy, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Innovative Finance and head of the Executive Board of UNITAID; the Rt Hon Stephen Mule, MP, Kenya Government, Maurine Murenga, Global Fund Advocates Network and our chair Cordelia Lonsdale, Development Initiatives. We were delighted to have Yvonne Chaka Chaka, UNICEF Ambassador and Princess of Africa Foundation, and well respected signer and campaigner open our event with her own passionate reasons for attending the conference. Report authors Steve Lewis and Evelyn Kibuchi presented their findings on the report, highlighting the important role of increased domestic resources and development assistance to help countries reach universal healthcare.

3. The Launch of The Global Financing Facility The Global Financing Facility in support of Every Women, Every Child was officially launched on the first day of the conference by the UN, the World Bank and the Governments of Canada, Norway and the USA. This new finance facility aims to support 62 low and lower-middle-income countries in the next five years to improve maternal, new-born, adolescent, and child health. $214 million was committed from a number of donors at FFD, in addition to previous pledges of $200 million and $600 million from the Governments of Norway and Canada respectively. This important new health facility that is being hailed “an essential part of the paradigm shift in development financing, emphasizing the essential but changing role of official development assistant in unlocking domestic resources and private flows focusing on results”.

4. Launch of the Addis Ababa Tax Initiative The Addis Ababa Tax Initiative was also launched at the conference. More than 30 countries (donor and recipient) and international agencies committed to do more to support tax collection in developing countries, recognising that low domestic revenue collection restricts a state’s ability to finance its own development. RESULTS staff were pleased because this is the same conclusion as was reached in our research in Kenya, publicised in the report ‘Who Pays for Progress?’ Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, announced the UK is one of the first partners of the initiative, committing to double DFID investment in capacity building and explained, “Investment in tax systems gives tremendous return on investment.”

5. Working with ACTION Partners from around the World. RESULTS UK partners & colleagues  RESULTS Canada, KANCO (Kenya), World AIDS Campaign International (Africa-wide), the Princess of Africa Foundation (South Africa), Global Health Advocates (France), and over-arching partnership ACTION who are based in the US, were all in Addis advocating for a strong outcome document and for health to be an important element of the financing for development conference and conversations. Between us we attended around 50 side events, met with our government representatives, launched the ACTION health equity infographic and Who Pays for Progress? report, and worked to make sure health for all, and how it will be financed, was a top conversation happening throughout the week. For more pictures and information from RESULTS UK in Addis check out @owstonlewis @LauraMAKerr and @resultsuk