Concluding Notes of Riga International Roundtable

Green Liberty is proud to inform that Riga International Roundtable Financing for Development: Role of EU Member States – one of the significant activities of Media4Development has been concluded successfully!

Riga Roundtable conference was welcomed by Green Liberty and organized by Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in Riga on June 11-12, 2015. Riga Roundtable conference gathered over 50 participants – policy makers, media representatives, civil society and private sector activists, academics and educators from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Finland and UK. During two days Riga Roundtable conference provided a rich agenda of several interconnected sections:

Media Breakfast - an informal meeting of Latvian media representatives with the conference organizers about the conceptual foundation and the key arguments of the Riga Roundtable. It was moderated by Dāvis Lansdorfs, freelance journalist from Latvia.

Welcoming Address to the participants of Riga Roundtable was shared by Mr. Viktors Makarovs, the Counselor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia on development cooperation, Special Envoy for the post-2015 process.

Opening Remarks about the importance on global connection and shared responsibility were shared by Ilze Saleniece, the representative of GLEN Latvia. 

Keynote Speeches: Introduction to global agenda of the financing for development that were shared by:

• Mr. Viktors Makarovs, the Counselor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia on development cooperation, Special Envoy for the post-2015 process introduced the role of policy and technical assistance: from MDGs to SDGs;
• Mr. Pekka Haavisto, the member of Finnish Parliament, Minister for Development and State Ownership 2013-2014, explored the policy issues in the global agenda, progress made in the financing for development in terms of numbers, sources, cases;
• Xavier Sol, the director of Counter Balance (European NGO coalition) shared a civil society perspective on key development issues highlighting ODA, taxes, role of private sector, accountability and monitoring;
• Leida Rijnhout from European Environmental Bureau, Global Policies and Sustainability unit revealed ecological economics, the sustainable economy, sustainable consumption and production and resource justice.

Roundtable Discussion 1. Financing for Development: Alternative solutions that gathered five participants who represented civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector:

• Agnese Alksne from Latvia Corporate Social Responsibility platform,
• Anna Skowera from Polish Fair Trade Association,
• Rimantas Žylius from managing director of Norway Registers Development AS, former Minister of Economics the Republic of Lithuania,
• Ondrej Kopecny from deputy director of Glopolis, Czech Republic.

Roundtable Discussion 2: Financing for development: Country positions that gathered five participants who were policy makers from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Czech Republic:

• Anda Grinberga, the Head of Development Cooperation policy Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia,
• Mr. Tõnis Saar, the Undersecretary General of Administrative Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia, Member of Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF),
• Ms. Diana Sijkova from the Department of Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia and Ms. Kristina Mikulova from the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia,  
• Ivan Jukl, the Director General of Economic Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic, 
• Gediminas Danišas from the Department of Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

Each of these sessions followed by questions and answers moderated by Miks Muižarājs, the Lead Researcher at World Bank. At the end of the first day after concluding remarks the participants were engaged in informal networking.

Welcome to Day 2 about the achievements, challenges and steps forward in promoting global development and welfare to the participants of Riga Roundtable was shared by Andris Gobiņš, the president of the European Movement - Latvia, member of the European Economic and Social Committee.

Case Study Session: Successes and challenges of the financing for development that implied three case studies: 

• Natural resources and extractive industries: Mining in Mongolia introduced by Regine Richter from the CEE Bankwatch partner urgewald, Berlin; 
• Financing for development in fragile states: Issues related to Afghanistan shared by William  Byrd, the senior expert, U.S. Institute of Peace; 
• Mainstreaming equalities in financing: Support to social entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone discussed by Ieva Lāce from the Unlimitedpartnership, Latvia.

The case study session was followed by questions and answers section moderated by Anna Karolin from the Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation.

Summing up and closing of the Riga Roundtable was organized as personal reflection session about observations and learnings of each participant during two days of the Riga Roundtable international conference.

See the short information about Riga Roundtable contributors - keynote speakers, roundtable discussion and case study participants, and moderators.

See the picture collage that integrates the most exciting moments of the Riga International Roundtable.

Green Liberty is grateful to all co-organizers, supporters and participants who have made this international conference to be a meaningful dialogic bridge between development policy makers and representatives of civil society organizations. Paldies!