Development: EPP Group calls for stronger involvement of private sector in development agenda

The EPP Group today welcomed the Outcome Document of the Special Event on Millennium Development Goals adopted on 25 September by the UN General Assembly. The agreement among UN members was reached with the strong participation of the EU. The Outcome Document was agreed on after lengthy negotiations which will chart the way forward towards the post-2015 development agenda.

“It constitutes a visible consensus reached among UN member states stressing that post-2015 will be a single comprehensive framework tackling, with one set of goals, poverty and sustainable development for all at the same time. However, the implementation remains crucial”, said Filip Kaczmarek MEP, Head of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the UNGA special event on the Millennium Development Goals, and Gay Mitchell MEP, EPP Group Co-Coordinator in the European Parliament’s Development Committee.

“It has to be recognised that thanks to the universality of the Millennium Development Goals and common efforts of the international community, with strong EU leadership, progress in fighting poverty has been achieved.  However, we still need to redouble our efforts in order to accelerate progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and defining a new global development agenda beyond 2015”, stressed Filip Kaczmarek.

With the common responsibility principle and enhancing strong global partnerships it was agreed that finding new means of financing for the new development framework is of paramount importance.

“We need to set up a mechanism for stronger coordination of donors’ aid. It has been estimated that thanks to such a mechanism, billions of Euros could be dedicated to saving lives. Moreover, we need to look beyond financial mechanisms for development that are already in place and move towards the stronger involvement of the private sector. But the real challenge remains in mobilising national resources for development by developing countries themselves, as well as moving from transparency into accountability. We must also put proactive Disaster Risk Reduction at the centre of the sustainable development goals, as this will have a fourfold impact on humanitarian needs”, said Gay Mitchell.

“We are pleased that our European voice has been heard and the new key principles on which the post-2015 development agenda will be based, include what the European Parliament has always been calling for - the human rights-based approach. From the very beginning, it was the EU side stressing during the negotiations on the Outcome Document that fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development can only happen if human rights are widely respected and implemented”, concluded Filip Kaczmarek.