Beirut-Amman, 12 December 2019 (ESCWA)--A recent ESCWA study found that for every $1 gained from remittances, the Arab region lost $2 between 2011 & 2018 and this is a major gap in the efforts to attain financial sustainability.
 
Today, the Regional Commission concluded the 1st Session of its Committee on Financing for Development in Amman, Jordan, to discuss frameworks to address this reality which obstructs achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
 
Representatives from member States reiterated the need to limit the damages incurred by illicit financial flows, and their impact on the mobilization of the national funds needed for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and work to establish national frameworks to combat IFFs according to Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and in light of the guiding proposals of an Arab road map on financing sustainable development and curbing illicit financial flows.
 
The Committee welcomed the first comprehensive report on the State of Financing Development in the Arab Region, and the report on Illicit Financial Flows in the Arab Region, as well as the updated findings of the Arab Financing for Development Scorecard presented by ESCWA during the session.
 
In his opening remarks, Director of the Economic Development and Integration Division at ESCWA, Mohamed El Hacene, said that "financing development requires a quantum shift to mobilize the various sources of financing, and the improvement of financial resources management as well as the sustainability of funding resources available to the Arab region.
 
Committee on Financing for Development
The Committee on Financing for Development stemmed from the Technical Committee on Liberalization of Foreign Trade, Economic Globalization and Financing for Development first established in 1997. Last July, the UN Economic and Social Council endorsed splitting the Technical Committee into two separate committees to give each topic under its mandate the focus it deserves.

 
For more information:
-Ms Rania Harb, Public Information Assistant, +961-70-008-879; email: harb1@un.org