Third Financing for Development Conference - ‘One size does not fit all,’ says Seychelles |16 July 2015

The Seychelles delegation taking part in the Third Financing for Development Conference (FfD3) being held in Addis Ababa has said partnerships need to be adapted bearing in mind the various differences between developing countries.

“As we discuss global partnerships, we need to also move decisively beyond ‘one size fits all’. We need to acknowledge the needs of countries in special situations and develop mechanisms that they can tap into. These might be Least Developed Countries (LDCs), landlocked countries, small island developing states, countries in conflict, post conflict countries or the specific challenges of middle-income countries.

“Successful global partnerships mean adapting development mechanisms to the needs of these vastly differing experiences,” said the head of the Seychelles delegation, Vice-President Danny Faure.

The vice-president added that in addition to adopting innovative approaches to these partnerships, new and ground-breaking ways of mobilising funding should be embraced:

“We can mobilise funding in many ways – to note that Seychelles is finalising a debt for adaptation swap agreement whereby we will create one of the Indian Ocean’s largest marine reserves – and reinvesting debt that has been bought back into a trust fund to fight climate change and fund conservation.

This is a means by which we can build global partnerships around the Blue Economy. By definition, the development of the Blue Economy involves global partnerships, because no single state can lay claim to the world’s oceans. It is a shared space. And at the moment it is a space that is being abused. We must build a new global partnership around sustainable oceans.”

Vice-President Faure was speaking at one of the specially convened round tables being held on the sidelines of the FfD3 under the theme ‘Global partnership and the three dimensions of sustainable development’.

Vice-President Faure was accompanied by the Minister for Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy, Jean-Paul Adam, and the special advisor to the vice-president, Hans Aglae.

The FfD3 is a UN meeting being held at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from July 13-16 and has brought together heads of states and ministers for finance, foreign affairs and development cooperation, as well as all relevant institutional stakeholders, non-governmental organisations and business sector entities from around the world to discuss and agree on the financing modalities of the post-2015 development agenda.