Inter Press Service: Ambitious Agenda, Ambitious Financing? UNGA Shows a Long Way Still to Go for SDGs
John Garrett, senior policy analyst for development finance, and Kathryn Tobin, advocacy coordinator, both at WaterAid

“…[In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),] the U.N.’s 193 member states need to show stronger resolve and political will to break from today’s business-as-usual financing trajectories. … We suggest three vital areas for greater attention from the international community. First, curbing tax evasion and avoidance, and stopping illicit financial flows are essential steps to enable the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. … Second, achieving the 2030 Agenda requires a much stronger emphasis on international public assistance in grant form, both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and climate finance, targeted to the poorest countries. … Third, the international community needs to support institutional strengthening in [low-income developing countries (LIDCs)] on a much greater scale. … Between now and next year’s High-Level Political Forum for heads of state in September 2019, the international community must generate the political momentum required for equitable and ambitious financing, to reach the shared commitments of the SDGs” (11/5).

The Lancet: Financing the SDGs: mobilizing and using domestic resources for health and human capital
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, president of Burkina Faso; Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway; Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group

“…On Nov 6, 2018, we are co-hosting [the Global Financing Facility for Every Woman and Every Child’s (GFF)] first replenishment event in Oslo, Norway, to expand GFF’s crucial work to improve maternal, child, and adolescent health and nutrition outcomes. We will also be co-hosting a linked conference a day earlier, on Domestic Resource Use and Mobilization for health (DRUM). … The Oslo DRUM conference will highlight emerging opportunities to solve four main challenges for domestic investment in health. First, social and political demand must be strengthened. … Second, resources must be used more effectively. … Third, leverage private-sector innovations. … Finally, re-energize development assistance for health. … The time to mobilize domestic resources for health is now. … The GFF replenishment and Oslo DRUM conference are platforms for countries to lead this change. We commit ourselves to sharing what we learn in Oslo in November so that these lessons contribute to a more concerted global response to health finance needs and the broader SDG financing challenge…” (11/3).