Addis might be close to having its outcome document, but the hard work of parsing old money from new commitments and tapping better data to monitor progress toward the sustainable development goals is yet to begin.
After months of preparation — and a few tense days of heated negotiation — developed and developing country representatives are now in the final stages of deliberations to forge an accord at the third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The summit has been hailed as a critical kickoff to a year of global goal setting, which could set the tone for U.N. discussions in New York in September and climate talks in Paris at the end of the year.
Trade and taxes, both those raised through domestic resource mobilization and those paid — or not — by private corporations, have dominated the agenda this week. Rich countries want traditional aid recipients to foot a larger portion of the post-2015 development bill, and traditional aid recipients want more private investment and a fair global tax regime.