Leading Liberia...Doing our Part

Representing Liberia is our passion. Liberia First!


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Remarks at 6th round of Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda 23 June 2015

Brief Remarks on behalf of the Liberian Delegation at the Sixth Round of

Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

United Nations Headquarters, New York
23 June 2015

Co-Facilitators:

The Liberian Delegation likes to thank you for the zero draft outcome document on the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda that was shared in a timely manner, and forms the basis of our deliberations here. We also like to thank you for the able manner in which you continue to conduct the affairs of these negotiations.

Our delegation aligns itself with the positions expressed by the African Group, the LDCs, and the Group of 77 plus China.  

Kindly permit us to make the following intervention in our national capacity.

First, the Republic of Liberia believes that peace and security, transparency and accountability, and strong, effective and efficient institutions are fundamental ingredients to growth and development anywhere in the world. We therefore request that these principles become the bedrock of the Sustainable Development Goals. Support to developing countries should therefore focus on strengthening peace and security, enhancing transparency and accountability, and building effective and efficient institutions to lead national development processes. These are strong principles in the Common African Position (CAP), and the Agenda for Transformation (AfT)-Liberia’s Vision 2030.

Second, our delegation is convinced that to achieve inclusive and pro-poor growth and development, the interest of children, youth and women must be strongly considered, and they must be allowed to play a fundamental role in the development process. We therefore suggest that the centrality of children, youth and women must be clearly enunciated in the final outcome document of the SDGs.

Third, national legislatures or parliaments are very much important in allocating national resources. The Liberian Delegation therefore likes to reinforce its previous call for the empowerment of legislators or parliamentarians so that they can play a robust leadership in the implementation of the SDGs.

Fourth, some African LDCs including Liberia, and developing countries in General, have bountiful natural resources that, when managed well, can spur growth and development. Developing countries therefore need to institute policies that will restrict exploitation and export of raw materials from developing states to developed countries. However, the most of the companies and investors that exploit these resources come from Developed countries. We therefore request that there should be a clear commitment on the part of developed countries to ensure fair, transparent and equitable trade and investment policies between developing countries and the powerful investors from developed countries. If this is done, developing countries would maximize benefits from their resources by adding value, boosting exports, creating jobs, accumulating wealth for their citizens, and ultimately alleviate poverty and hunger.

Fifth, our delegation holds the conviction that developing countries must take their own development seriously and invest in growth corridors such as education, infrastructure, agriculture, and health among others. However, we are fully aware that Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains a major source of development funding mainly for fragile and poor states. ODA must therefore be provided based on the need of developing countries, rather than the priorities of donor countries that more often than not set preconditions that undermine the national interest of poor countries. Up to date, some OECD member states have not met the commitment of 0.7% of their GNI as a voluntary contribution to ODA. Liberia encourages all donor countries that have not met this target to fulfill their commitment.

Sixth, there is a positive correlation between limited energy and poverty on the one hand, and poor infrastructure and poverty on the other; and that about ten percent of Africans have access to energy, while about five percent of the hydro power potential in Africa is being utilized. The Liberian Delegation therefore recommends that concrete commitments should be made to increase access to clean energy globally, fund infrastructural development and adequately invest in education and agriculture. Additionally, evidence shows that Least Developed Countries have 60 percent of the agricultural land globally. Hence investment in agriculture in LDCs would increase food security and nutrition. With these measures, we can substantively reduce poverty and hunger globally by 2030.

Seventh, the health of the people of any given country is important. Liberia has found out from the Ebola Virus Disease experience that a country cannot make substantive progress in attaining growth and development when its health sector is undermined by pestilence or disease. We are convinced that healthy families lead to healthy communities, and healthy communities lead to healthy states. We therefore request that the issue of resilient health systems for families, communities and states, and the significance of mental health should be clearly captured and stated in the SDGs.

Last, African states are more often than not compelled to provide tax breaks to investment companies from developed countries. However, to increase domestic revenue and adequately fund national development plans, developing countries need to maximize taxes from their resources. Liberia therefore recommends that the Addis Ababa conference on Financing for Development should commit to reduction of tax breaks to the multinational and transnational investment companies from developed countries. This would help increase developing countries’ domestic revenues to fund national development programmes.

Once again, Co-Facilitators, the Liberian Delegation would like to thank you for your leadership in these negotiations. We will continue to interject as a delegation where and when necessary as the negotiations continue.

TK Remarks @ African LDCs Meeting in Milan

8 June 2015 / By Tom Kaydor 

Introductory remarks by Hon. Mr. Thomas S.B. Kaydor, Jr., Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liberia   

At the Ministerial Meeting of African Least Developed Countries on ‘Structural Transformation, Graduation and the Post-2015 Development Agenda’ in Milan, Italy.

During SESSION 3: ‘Means of Implementation’ in the context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda’ Co-facilitated by Mr. Thomas S.B. Kaydor, Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liberia and Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General, UN-DESA

I call this meeting to order.

Hon´ble Ministers

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me start by thanking the Government of Italy and the Office of the High-Representative for the Least Developed Countries for convening this meeting.

I have the honour to co-chair this session with Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

I am pleased to co-chair this session in such a timely moment for all of us. Ongoing discussions on a Post-2015 Development Agenda already indicate that sustainable development will require substantial efforts on areas that go well beyond the MDGs. The timely fulfilment of commitments already made as well as additional resources will be of paramount importance to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Least Developed Countries.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains the most important source of public international development finance for all LDCs. Promoting structural transformation of their economies and building productive capacities requires resources that go beyond what is domestically available in the LDCs. Their limited access to international financial markets further exacerbates their difficulties in financing sustainable development.  ODA and debt relief are critical to overcome the finance gap faced by the LDCs.

Building capacity in the African LDCs for enhanced domestic resource mobilization is also of great importance. Improving the ability of the public administration in collecting taxes in a transparent, efficient and equitable manner can bring many benefits, besides increasing the resource base to finance sustainable development. Addressing illicit financial flows, transfer pricing and other practices that erode the tax base of the African LDCs will also require dedicated support from the multilateral system and development partners.

Leveraging additional finance from innovative sources can provide much needed resources to implement sustainable development in the African LDCs. Mobilizing private resources through blending instruments or public sector guarantees can also help increase access to credit to public and private actors in the LDCs. These instruments can reduce the risk associated to projects where there is not sufficient available private finance. In an environment characterized by constrained availability of resources, blending can be an effective tool in sectors that have high social impact or that are critical to the development strategy of the country. It is important, however, to carefully evaluate the context in which blending finance can be effective.

Promoting an environment conducive to productive investment that reverts into the productive fabric of the African LDCs and generate decent employment will be critical for implementing the SDGs. The African LDCs have committed themselves to continue strengthening national policies and regulatory frameworks for stimulating foreign investment in production. Despite all these efforts, the share of global FDI inflows in LDCs remains very low. The proposal of establishing an international investment support centre would greatly improve the ability of the LDCs to attract FDI.

African LDCs participation in global trade is very small and in most cases a few number of commodities represent an extraordinarily large share of exports. Trade, however, can be a catalyser for productive capacity building. Enabling African LDCs to improve their participation in global value chains and diversifying the composition of their exports are necessary steps to harness the potential of trade for poverty reduction and productive capacity building.

Building productive capacity in African LDCs will necessarily entail substantially strengthening the science, technology and innovation base of the African LDCs. The ability to acquire new technologies and to developed indigenous capacity on research and development must be greatly enhanced to support structural transformation in the African LDCs. The establishment of the Technology Bank and Science Technology and Innovation Mechanism for the LDCs would be an important element in overcoming the science, technology and innovation gaps in the LDCs, as mentioned by the Chair of the High-level panel of experts this morning.

I am extremely pleased to count today with such a distinguished panel. I look forward to hear from them concrete proposals, initiatives and mechanisms that could assist the African LDCs, their development partners and the multilateral system in raising the adequate level of resources to finance sustainable development, fosters structural transformation and promote the building of productive capacities in the African LDCs.

The specific questions that this session will address are:

-          How can we bridge the substantial finance gap required to foster structural transformation and promote building of productive capacities in the LDCs?

-          How can we ensure that ODA goes where is most needed? Would a target share of ODA to LDCs help to reduce their finance gap?

-          What are the mechanisms needed to facilitate leveraging additional development finance for the African LDCs? What would be the role of different stakeholders in supporting the LDCs efforts to increase access to development finance in the African LDCs?

-          How can we increase the share of FDI to the LDCs? What would be needed to ensure that FDI contributes to sustainable development and support the building of productive capacities in the African LDCs?

-          What are the policies and strategies needed to enhance the role of trade in productive capacity building in African LDCs?

-          How can we assist the African LDCs in improving their Science, Technology and Innovation base? What kind of mechanisms can bolster science, technology and innovation in African LDCs?

I have the honour to introduce Mr. Erik Solheim, Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, who will deliver a keynote presentation.

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I would like to thank Mr. Solheim for his insightful remarks, which certainly help to frame the discussion.

Now I have the privilege to introduce our distinguished panelists.

-          Mr. Joakim Reiter, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD

-          Mr. Xiaozhun YI, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization

-          Mr. Mario Matus, Deputy Director General, Development Sector, WIPO

Please limit your interventions to 7 minutes.