Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you Chair.
New Zealand thanks Nepal, Norway, Mexico and Zambia for their productive work compiling the elements paper. There are many aspects to it that New Zealand supports. There are some suggestions that will need careful consideration and we can see that in some places there might be different interpretations of progress to date. Let us all remain open to differing perspectives during this process to ensure the best outcomes for people and planet.
To this end, in the zero draft, we would like to see references to the advancement of gender equality and human rights.
We all know that we need to increase financing, including ODA, private finance, and other flows, to address increasingly complex global and country level challenges. We must also use existing resources better. As articulated in the Elements Paper, we must collectively do more to achieve the development effectiveness of ODA. This includes a focus on partner-led development and supporting the strengthening of partners’ systems notably people capability, public financial management, good governance and domestic resource mobilisation.
For example, a large portion of New Zealand’s development cooperation is with smaller, capacity constrained bilateral partners with whom we try to ‘walk-the-talk’ on development effectiveness. In this context, we have scaled up the use of higher order modalities such as direct budget support, which has opened space for policy dialogue and increased coordination between development partners and government.
New Zealand supports efforts by Small Island Developing States to have their unique vulnerabilities to shocks appropriately addressed by international development finance. We welcome the acknowledgement of countries in special situations and those with specific challenges in the Elements Paper.
We would like to caution that some of the proposals in the elements paper should be left to be resolved in their own fora, for example climate financing. Additionally, the paper includes calls for reforms that are already under way, for example at the MDBs. Progress to date should be acknowledged.
And there are proposals for new initiatives in the Elements Paper that will need to be scoped and discussed further before we could determine if we support them. We must remain mindful of the impact of institutional fragmentation on developing countries, especially smaller countries.
Chair, as we work to build trust and find common ground at FfD4, we must agree to work in effective, transparent, and impactful partnerships to improve shared prosperity around the globe.
Thank you.