​Saint Lucia’s Minister for Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, Hon. Dr. James Fletcher, addressed the third International Financing for Development Conference (FFD3) today, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Dr. Fletcher called for the establishment of new global funds for health, education, water and sanitation, and sustainable energy to aid developing countries escape the vicious cycles of poverty, hunger, disease and the depletion of natural resources. He also called for a dedicated funding mechanism for the SAMOA Pathway, the ambitious development agenda for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that was endorsed at the third International SIDS Conference in Samoa last year.

In addressing issues that were specific to the member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Minister Fletcher drew the conference’s attention to the recent listing of some CARICOM countries as uncooperative on tax matters as being “singularly unhelpful” and called for “a more geographically balanced forum within the United Nations to address international tax cooperation matters.”

As he has done in previous meetings, Hon. James Fletcher spoke of the dangers in the classification of Caribbean countries as Middle Income and suggested the need for the development of different economic indicators that addressed the vulnerability of Caribbean SIDS. He also recommended that the Financing for Development Conference should establish the fact that climate financing must be additional to traditional development financing, to prevent the temptation, by some countries, to conveniently double count and thereby limit the funding available for climate change.

In closing, Dr. Fletcher stated that the third FFD Conference held the keys to financing an international development agenda beyond 2015, and setting a new comprehensive development agenda that focuses on poverty reduction, economic empowerment, social development and environmental protection for all.