Civil Society Groups Prepare for Finance Development ConferenceCivil society organizations from 25 countries are in Entebbe, Uganda, for a preparatory meeting ahead of the United Nations 3rd annual International Conference on Finance for Development taking place in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, next week. Heads of state and government are expected to attend the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development (IFAD) where they will map out strategies for eliminating global poverty and hunger. The United Nation’s only international financing institution, IFAD, will play a lead role, highlighting that the challenges faced by the world’s poorest people, the majority of whom live in rural areas, who are a tremendous resource for a sustainable future. In a statement released Tuesday IFAD said this conference, “will attempt to answer the question of how – and by whom – future development plans will be funded over the next 15 years.” “The second global meeting will mark the finalization of the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals (SDGs) in September, while the third hopes to reach a new global agreement on climate change in December.” Misheck Gondo director of the National Association of Youth Organizations, a civil society organization that represented Zimbabwe at the Uganda summit, said it was necessary for CSO’s to be part of the process in particular as the post 2015 development agenda is finalized. “As civil society we are saying we have a role to complement our governments and also to play the monitoring as far as the outcomes of Addis Abba is concerned,” said Gondo. He said like other countries in Africa, Zimbabwe is languishing in domestic and international debts and as CSO’s they are lobbying for the cancellation of debts for countries to focus on their economies. “But the issue of governance is coming up, which is also very important, to make sure that apart from cancellation of debts the governments have to take responsibilities to make sure they are transparent, to make sure that they are accountable.” The 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, which begins on July 13 to July 16, will assess the progress made in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration, address new and emerging issues and reinvigorate and strengthen the financing for development follow-up processes. No media source currently available