“We have [had] a problem for a decade, which is … somehow we did it [in] the wrong order.”
That was the analysis from Rémy Rioux, head of French development agency AFD, on a panel at Devex Impact House during the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings last week. Rioux, who has led AFD since 2016, reminded Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe that in July 2015, the development world gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to set a financial framework before meeting at the United Nations General Assembly to set the Sustainable Development Goals and finally gathering for the 21st U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP21, in Paris to forge the Paris Agreement.
“We should have done the other way around. We should have started with climate because, like it or not, climate will remain the driver for a very long time, then we should have declared the SDGs … and then we should have gone to Addis to set the financial framework of that ambition and that urgency.”
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About the author
Fiona Zublin
Fiona Zublin is Devex's Deputy Managing Editor. Prior to joining the Devex team, she worked at OZY, NPR, and The Washington Post. Originally from the United States, she now lives and works in Paris.
