Doha, Qatar (BBN)- Warning of the consequences of the current financial turmoil on other key global challenges, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday called for bold and effective efforts to ensure that today”s emergency does not become tomorrow”s human crisis with particularly devastating effects on the world”s poorest.
“We gather at a fateful moment,” Mr. Ban told participants at the opening of a United Nations conference on development financing taking place in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The four-day meeting is a follow-up to the International Conference on Financing for Development that took place in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, which resulted in the adoption of a landmark partnership agreement by developed and developing countries focusing on issues such as domestic resource mobilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, ODA and debt relief.
In addition to assessing progress on the Monterrey Consensus, as the agreement is known, participants at the conference, which include representatives of government, business and civil society, will focus on ensuring there is sufficient financing to meet key development goals amid mounting concern about the impact of the current global economic slowdown on poor nations, according to a UN press statement.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-30November08-7:48 PM (BST)
