International development finance agendas at risk of clashing

New York – The world’s nations needed to quickly agree on principles that would avoid different international development finance agendas coming into conflict, WWF warned today.

WWF welcomed a report released by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon today aimed at achieving lagging Millennium Development Goals on the original schedule of 2015, but said there was a risk MDGs and other current development agendas would not be achieved unless each had adequate and quarantined funding.

Also on the international agenda is securing the funding mechanisms for climate adaptation for least developed countries and the low carbon development support promised under the Copenhagen Accord, with the UN Secretary General recently announcing a High Level Advisory Group on climate financing.

“The danger when we have two parallel processes essentially related to development funding is that governments will start to pick and choose priorities and merge funding streams for less overall development funding,” said Kim Carstensen, WWF climate initiative leader.

“The world’s poorest people are due the commitments made to them at the opening of the new millennium and they also are due the world’s assistance in coping with climate change impacts they had almost no role in causing and having a chance to develop without contributing to climate catastrophe.”

WWF is calling for agreements and commitments that Copenhagen Accord related funding be additional to commitments under overseas development aid commitments, including meeting the MDG objectives.

“The MDGs are behind schedule largely because developed countries made funding commitments they did not keep,” said Carstensen. “There are lessons there, both for an accelerated effort to achieve the MDGs on the original schedule and to achieve the funding commitments made under the Copenhagen Accord.”

“Where we should be finding the synergies between the two development agendas is not in mixing up and depleting the funding streams but in emphasising the common objectives.”

“Successful climate adaptation works towards several MDG goals in protecting productive landscapes and marine environments, reducing health risks, achieving food security and empowering women in their communities.”

Keeping the Promise, the new UN outline for achieving the MDGs, breaks new ground by identifying climate change as an issue that will hold back their achievement.

The report also notes that “achieving the MDGs should also contribute to the capacities needed to tackle climate change.”

“We couldn’t agree more,” Carstensen said.


For further information:

Kim Carstensen, Leader Global Climate Initiative, WWF International, k.carstensen@wwf.dk, +4540343635;

Martin Hiller, Head Climate Policy Communications, WWF Int., mhiller@wwfint.org, +41793472256


About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

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