Executive Secretary Says Occupation is Assault on Dignity and Negation of Freedoms

ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf today said, “Occupation is Assault on Dignity and Negation of Freedoms.” Khalaf was speaking in a side event organized by the UN regional commissions on the sidelines of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. The side event was attended by ministers from the different world regions, as well as civil society organizations and UN agencies. Noble laureate, Joseph Stiglitiz, was the keynote speaker of the event, and was joined by ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, and Advisor to the Vice-president of Ecuador as panelists. The objective of the side-event was to highlight some of the lessons learnt and experiences in the different regions in implementing effective policies and initiatives that can attract additional financing for development and unlock more resources needed to achieve the SDGs.

“Regional Commissions have played for many years an important role within the UN System in providing a vital bridge between global frameworks and national development agendas”, Khalaf noted in her opening remarks. She added that they have constantly challenged the existing development paradigms that permeated global discussions for many years to take into account regional concerns and priorities.

The negative impact of conflict and occupation on realizing the ambitious agenda of the sustainable development goals was underscored. “Conflict is development in reverse. It has the potential of wiping out any hard-won development gains achieved by member states in the past years”, the ESCWA Executive Secretary noted. She went on to say, “Occupation is by definition an assault on dignity and rights. Unless ending the occupation is part of the new agenda, the Palestinians will be left behind, by design.”

Professor Stieglitz stressed in his intervention on the need to address some of the key structural challenges facing countries to access financing for development. He pointed to the need to address financial market failures and their ramifications. He also advocated for dealing with the issue of tax reform and tax evasion within the context of the UN, rather than providing alternative frameworks outside of its context. There is a mismatch between long-term investment needs and savings that need to be addressed through the proper mechanisms including through regional development institutions, he concluded.

The panelists addressed in their interventions the issue of planning and public expenditure frameworks for effective mobilization and utilization of resources, channeling private financial flows in support of sustainable development including through effective public-private partnerships (PPPs) and blending finance; encouraging institutional investors to deploy their liquidity towards the development of domestic capital markets, reducing illicit financial flows and addressing tax evasion for international commercial transactions; and innovative sources of finance, including through innovative instruments and special purpose vehicles to finance sustainable development. It was underscored that despite all national efforts for fiscal prudence, the fiscal space available to finance development is rapidly shrinking in view of structural impediments in global finance.

In conclusion, the ministers asked the regional commissions to follow-up on the discussions and develop a paper that would explore the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development within the context of the envisaged sustainable development goals. This paper will help in guiding the thinking of policy-makers in implementing the post-2015 framework in a coherent and holistic manner. “We will continue, as regional commissions, to work closely with you in ensuring the agenda is indeed in line with your priorities to realize sustainable development”, Khalaf assured the meeting.