Remarks given by Dr. Mariam Jashi, President of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development, following the Round Table B : “Doestic and international private business and finance” (Action Area B), during the 2018 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development, on Wednesday 25 April.

As prepared for delivery

Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished delegates,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of Georgia, as the President country of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development.

Let me first express gratitude to co-facilitators, Permanent Representatives of Jamaica to the United Nations and Permanent Representatives of Portugal to the United Nations for their sound leadership in elaborating inter-governmentally agreed conclusions and recommendations of the ECOSOC Forum.

We are particularly grateful to co-facilitators for considering the proposition from Georgia and including innovative financing in the outcome document of this important forum.

The latter secures sustained global commitment to innovative financing in line with Monterrey Consensus, Doha Declaration and Addis Agenda for Action.

My statement today will exclusively focus on the potential of Innovative Financing in making a transformational change.

We know that the international community faces a critical challenge in funding SDGs.

Every year, we need to bridge an estimated 2.5 trillion USD gap.

In this context Innovative Financing can play a critical role in funding 2030 agenda along with domestic financial flows, foreign direct investments and official development assistance.

Therefore we welcome the expanding dialogue around different models and instruments of innovative financing from multiple players, also reflected in the number of side-events with the scope of the current ECOSOC Forum.

Indeed, tax levies, green bonds, social impact investments and blended finance are the diverse innovative solutions for funding development efforts. It is increasingly clear that Innovative Financing can be the major catalyst of funding the 2030 agenda.

Therefore,Georgia, during its Presidency of the Leading Group, will focus on two main priorities :

First, to consistently position innovative financing at the high political agenda at global, regional and country levels using TISIFF Recommendations.

• TISSIF is the outcome document of the first International Solidarity and Innovative Financing Forum for SDGs hosted by Georgia.

• The document offers a unified framework and a roadmap on how to generate additional and more diverse Innovative Financing for each of the 17 goals and 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda.

• TISIFF recommendations prioritizes not only replication of successful and proven global initiatives, such as UNITAID, but also identifies equally important innovative funding instruments at national and subnational levels from tourism, trade, banking, culture, sports and other industries.

The second major priority for Georgia is to work with the United Nations and the Leading Group for establishing an integrated coordination mechanism for innovative financing.

A new integrated mechanism is essential for coordinating partnership efforts, prospecting potential funding avenues and measuring impact of innovative financing in the development architecture.

I thank you for your attention.