ECOSOC is charged with reviewing the financing for development follow-up process.  In 2002, the International Conference on Financing for Development, which issued the Monterrey Consensus, brought over 50 heads of state and an unprecedented number of finance and other ministers together to agree on the first international framework for financing development. A follow-up process was continued through intergovernmental negotiations to build on and update commitments, including the Second Global Conference on Financial for Development in Doha in 2008 and the Third International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa in July 2015. The subsequent Addis Ababa Action Agenda laid out a new global framework for financing sustainable development that aligns all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities, and committed countries to a comprehensive set of policy actions towards the means of implementation for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Critically, the Addis Agenda mandated the Council to hold on an annual basis the Forum on Financing for Development Follow-up (FfD Forum).  The FfD Forum is the global platform for reviewing the current trends in development finance and the means of implementation, as well as advancing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in line with the international commitments of the financing for development outcomes.  It engages key institutional actors involved in development finance—including dialogue with the leadership of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, UN Conference on Trade and Development and UNDP—and features multi-stakeholder participation from relevant actors from civil society, the private sector, parliaments, local authorities, academia and international organizations.  Participants include representatives of Member States, including a large contingent of Ministers and other high-level representatives from capitals, as well as representatives from other key stakeholder groups referenced above.  The annual report of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) serves as the major substantive input to the FfD Forum. The official outcome of the Forum is a set of intergovernmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations that contribute to the overall follow-up and review on the 2030 Agenda and are submitted to the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on sustainable development.

Integral to the Council’s overall efforts, ECOSOC also brings UN Member States together in the Development Cooperation Forum to assess global trends in development cooperation and related commitments, and consider ways to accelerate progress.

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