The International Conference on Financing for Development will be held in Mexico in 2002 at the highest political level including a summit, the concluding resolution of the second FfD Preparatory Committee recommended on Friday 23 February 2001. (Full text of the resolution is available on the FfD website : www.un.org/esa/ffd).
The second session was opened by the statements from the Secretary-General, President of the General Assembly, high level representatives of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, and the Executive Secretaries of the regional commissions. These statements and the Governmental contributions to the opening session are also available on the website. The remainder of the PrepCom in informal session discussed each of the chapters of the Secretary-General's report (A/257/,,,/12) and procedural matters. The co-chairs gave an oral summary of the views expressed in the informal dialogue.
The final resolution also established a methodology to move the process into the third preparatory phase. The third session of the PrepCom has now been split into two one-week sessions : the first 2-8 May 2001 will follow the 1 May ECOSOC / BWI High Level Dialogue; the second session will take place in October/November during a recess of the Second Committee of the General Assembly
To prepare for the first session, Governments have been asked to send to the Secretariat by 15 April a "concise identification of possible initiatives and themes" . The Secretariat will report on this inventory to the third session and provide a copy to the facilitator, Mr. Mauricio Escanero of Mexico. He has then been asked to prepare a "working paper... which will serve as the means to further focus the discussions of the substantive preparatory process"..
Building on the discussions in the first session and other relevant inputs, the facilitator will then prepare for the October/November session a "concise first draft" to move the process toward the final preparatory phase.
The resolution also requested the FfD Bureau to continue to explore ways and means to deepen the efforts of all relevant stakeholders at the regional level as well as within civil society and the business community in support of the FFD process. The Bureau's recommendations will also be on the agenda of the third PrepCom. To strengthen the participation of the business community, delegations suggested that the May session should have a day devoted to the enhancing the engagement with the business sector.
The on-line commentary feature on the Secretary-General's recommendations remains open. And ten additional high level policy texts have been indexed and added to the Policy Text Database.:
