Least Developed Countries

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SIXTY NINETH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS
FOR THE ADOTION OF THE POST 2015 AGENDA
(MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION)
STATEMENT
BY
H.E.MR. JEAN -FRANCIS R. ZINSOU
AMBASSADOR PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BENIN
TO THE UNITED NATIONS,
CHAIR OF THE GLOBAL COORDINATION BUREAU OF LDCs
NEW YORK, 28 JULY 2015
Permanent Mission of
the Republic of Benin
to the United Nations
Mission Permanente
de la République du Bénin auprès des Nations Unies
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Distinguished Co-Chairs
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of LDCs. The Group aligns itself with the statement made by South Africa on behalf of the G77 and China.
We presented our position on the Means of Implementation last week. We have carefully looked at your draft of 28 July 2015. Our proposals are yet to be reflected in the text. I would therefore reiterate our consistent position on the MoI and want to see them reflected in the text.
Post-2015 is a new era in the history of the UN. We are not here just to recall or reiterate our earlier commitments. We need to see a step forward in the area of the means of implementation. We participated in the FfD process with the hope that we will get a fairly ambitious agenda that will enable us to realize the SDGs with some degree of confidence. We welcome what have been agreed upon in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. However, our critical review of the FfD outcome suggests that the provisions of the means of implementation pledged there are not sufficient to fulfill the needs of LDCs. A successful post-2015 outcome will depend on the prospects of well-designed set of resources being delivered in a time-bound and quantifiable manner. The Group will now present before you the following specific proposals that the group wants to see under MoI.
First: Provide 0.25% of GNI of the donor countries as ODA to LDCs and at least 50% of ODA should be allocated to LDCs.
Second: In the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action, the donors agreed to provide an increasing proportion of Aid for trade to LDCs. We want to see that at least 50 per cent of the aid for trade should be allocated to LDCs.
Third: We welcome the Addis Ababa decision to adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries. A concrete way to operationnalize the investment promotion regimes will be to build a one-stop arrangement through an “international support centre for LDCs under the auspices of the United Nations”. We want to have strong language on the full and timely operationnalization of an international investment support center for LDCs.
Fourth: A major deliverable in the context of FfD and post-2015 development agenda is the Technology Bank for LDCs. We call upon our development partners to allocate at least 0.1 per cent of their ODA to the Technology Bank. This is necessary for effective functioning of the Technology Bank for LDCs.
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Fifth: Many of our countries are crippling with extraordinary debt burdens and our scare resources are being spent to service our outstanding debts, which could have been effectively used for their sustainable development. We therefore call upon the international community to make a commitment for full debt cancellation of LDCs.
Sixth: The biggest part of the risks and uncertainties that could derail global human progress over the next decades, relates to disasters and other severe shocks and crises. The spread of Ebola virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and a devastating earthquake in Nepal are ideal examples of such crises. Therefore, what we want is the establishment of “crisis mitigation and resilience building fund for LDCs” as a cornerstone and an integral part of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, building on what have already been agreed upon in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
Seventh: The group of LDCs needs to be recognized universally including by the World Bank Group, the IMF and other regional and international financial institutions. This is vitally important for a coherent follow-up and implementation of the Post-2015 development agenda.
The group would be flexible about the placement of the above proposals. But we need to see them in the text. This is important to conclude our negotiations in a timely manner.
The group would like to stress that the last sentence of paragraph 66 on ODA does not reflect the minimum ambitions reached in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. We would request the co-facilitators to reformulate the last part of paragraph 66 fully reflecting the commitments of the international community reflected in the last sentences of paragraphs 51 and 52 of the AAAA.
We are concerned that all other groupings of developing countries are lumped together without paying attention to the specificity of challenges faced by different groups of countries, in some cases ignoring the programmes dedicated to them. One should not forget that the Group of LDCs comprises fourteen (14) LLDCs and nine (9) SIDS. These countries are entitled to benefit from the measures adopted to curb the marginalization of LDCs.
The LDCs oppose any revision of target 13.b which is meant to help marginalized communities in the LDCs access climate change financing for adaptation measures.
Especially as regards aid for trade measures and duty free quota free access to markets, we should not forget that they are destined to promote the participation of the poorest countries to the international trade. Expanding those preferential measures to countries with higher export potential will means preference erosion, because the LDCs are not competitive and as a
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consequence, will be further marginalized and pushed into economic and social instability which is totally the opposite of the spirit of the post 2015 Agenda.
I thank you all for your kind attention.