Madam President, Under-Secretary- General of DESA, Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,

I have the honor to deliver this explanation of position on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Excellencies,

The G77 and China extends its gratitude to Ambassador Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa, and Ambassador Hector Gómez Hernández, Permanent Representative of Spain of the Co-facilitators of the intergovernmental consultations for their great leadership in steering the informal consultations. We commend Ambassador Paula Narváez, the President of ECOSOC, for her leadership in ensuring that this Forum adopts an outcome document that will greatly contribute to next year's Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.

The informal consultations on the outcome document concluded last week and throughout these consultations, the Group engaged in good faith with the sole objective of ensuring that the outcome document is adopted by consensus as it has been the case since the Forum's inception in 2016. In this regard, the Group despite having concerns on some issues fully supports the final draft outcome document of 2024 ECOSOC FFD circulated by the President of ECOSOC on Thursday 18th April 2024 and 23rd April 2024 considering that the text is balanced.

Excellencies,

The Group regrets that an amendment has been submitted to delete paragraph 72 of the final outcome document, which was previously agreed upon by consensus at the highest political level. The Group recognizes the interlinkage between the unilateral measures and achievement of sustainable development. Developing countries that are under these unilateral measures continue to face challenges to achieve full economic and social development and are being left behind. Additionally, in the context of international trade and financing for development, the application of unilateral economic measures presents complex challenges.

Unilateral economic, financial, or trade measures, invariably disrupt trade flows, exacerbate poverty, and hinder development efforts in targeted countries. Moreover, such measures constitute a violation of the principles outlined in the Charter of the United Nations and international law, as well as the values of multilateralism and fundamental norms of international relations. In this regard, the G77 and China fully endorses the inclusion of this paragraph in this final outcome in fulfillment of our pledge of leaving no country or person behind.

The Group expresses its disappointment at this proposed amendment that undermines the commitment made by all our leaders in 2015 and the integrity of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as efforts to accelerate action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals whose progress remains largely offtrack, particularly in developing countries. It also undermines the Addis Ababa Action Agenda commitment to leave no country or person behind. In this regard, the Group calls for a vote on this amendment and urges all delegations to vote against it. In addition, we urge all delegations to vote in favor of retention of paragraph 72 and the whole outcome document incase voting is requested for. The Group wishes to state that this verbatim language from the 2030 Agenda remains agreed and any attempts to change this shall not be accepted.

Excellencies,

The Group appreciates the efforts by the Co-facilitators and President on the SDGs Stimulus proposals. However, we note with deep concern that silence was broken on the formulation by the Co- facilitators on taking actions by the international community to implement the SDG Stimulus considering that some of these Stimulus proposals are already being implemented. This formulation was a step forward as agreed in the 2023 SDG Summit Political Declaration.

We also note with concern that silence was broken on paragraph 27 over language supporting the outline, modalities, and work of the Ad Hoc Committee to Draft Terms of Reference for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. Particularly after it was adopted by consensus in February's organisational session of the ad hoc committee. Walking back on decisions made by consensus in the ad hoc committee, does not send the right message, particularly ahead of the first session of the ad hoc committee, which starts tomorrow. We reiterate our support to the work of the Ad hoc committee and urge all Member States, to work constructively in the processes towards the development of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

The Group regrets that the silence procedure was also broken on the 21st IDA replenishment. We reaffirm our call for the replenishment to be the largest ever, aiming to significantly contribute to the eradication of poverty and the achievement of sustainable development in developing countries.

Excellencies,

On international trade, we appreciate efforts made by the co- facilitators to present balanced language in this section. However, the Group had hope that the language in paragraph 66 of the final document circulated on 18th April 2024 could have been retained and included. While fully acknowledging the critical importance of addressing climate change, we reaffirm the imperative to ensure that such actions taken to address climate change, whether undertaken unilaterally or collaboratively, do not unfairly discriminate against any trading partners or serve as disguised barriers to international trade.

On the debt and debt sustainability, we believe that the document brings out important elements to move forward the discussion, in particular the commitment to seek solutions to the challenges of high borrowing costs and debts service burdens through actions and reforms to strengthen debt crisis prevention, support countries that face severe fiscal constraints and improve multilateral debt mechanism; as well as the concern that high debt service burdens and higher interest rates are crowding out vital investments and constrain progress towards the SDGs due to the reduction of available fiscal space.

The Group emphasizes the importance of the need for multilateral debt mechanism to fully address sovereign external debt distress and provide an effective, efficient, equitable and predictable mechanism for managing debt crises in view of the development needs of developing countries. The Group also emphasizes the importance of the agreed language on the role of debt relief, including debt cancellation, and debt restructuring as debt crisis prevention, management and resolution tools, that was included in the rev 1 document. This language was finally not incorporated in the final version.

The Group takes note of paragraph 77 on debt management and debt transparency as relevant elements for this section. However, we acknowledge that there was no engagement on the drafting process of this paragraph during the informal consultations, unlike the other paragraphs where work was done between delegations. The Group will have to assess the language in this paragraph for upcoming discussions and may come back with alternative proposals in the future intergovernmental processes.

Excellencies,

On addressing systemic issues, the Group supports paragraphs 84 and 85 on the reform of the international financial architecture and look forward to further discussions on this topic in the IV Conference with the aim to have a system that responds to the financing needs of developing countries. On paragraph 87, the Group insists that the selection of the heads, management and staff of the international financial institutions should also be based on equitable geographical representation to broaden and strengthen the voice, participation, and representation of developing countries in international economic decision-making, norm-setting and global economic governance.

On paragraph 89, the Group was expecting more ambition and a recognition that the progress in re-channeling has been slow. The Group reiterates its call on all countries to urgently redeem their unfulfilled pledges to re-channel $100 billion in SDRs in a timely manner, including through MDBs, and encourage developed countries to make additional commitments. We stress the importance of catalyzing the potential of special drawing rights as a source to finance sustainable development.

On paragraph 90, the Group while welcoming its inclusion, regrets that there was no appetite to follow up the discussions on the surcharge policies, including a direct request for information on the subject. The Group insists on its call on the IMF to suspend the surcharge policy charge with immediate effect.

The Group is pleased with the balance that has been achieved on the section on Science Technology and Innovation and on Data, Monitoring and Follow Up. We thank delegations for their flexibility and hope that all delegations will make every effort to implement actions to achieve the enabling environments and data-driven policymaking as outlined in these sections, to reduce digital divides and harness international cooperation toward achieving the SDGs. We look forward to the convening of the 10th ECOSOC FFD Forum next year, and hope that we can continue the momentum on many of the important issues we have discussed this past week.

Finally, the Group fully supports the adoption of the final outcome document to ensure that financing for development remains integral to the development agenda and to promote greater solidarity and cooperation as preparations continue for the next International Conference, with the ambition of leaving no country or person behind. The political commitment and will by all of us to take urgent actions to address financing for development remain critical in accelerating actions at all levels to achieve the SDGs.

I thank you.