In a historic agreement on Wednesday, all 193 UN member states came to a final outcome on how the world would finance the next fifteen years of global development.

The landmark Addis Ababa Action Agenda was “a critical step forward in building a sustainable future for all,” according to Ban Ki-moon and lays the groundwork for implementing the next set of global goals, which will be adopted by countries around the world this September.

Bravo 2 negotiators #FFD3!!! Strong outcome, impt progress on essential srvcs 4 all, infra/energy, STI, women, PS. Onward!

— Elizabeth Cousens (@e_cousens) 15 julho 2015

Addis Ababa Action Agenda agreed in Ethiopia! Get the details here: http://t.co/XqPgjefQ9h #FFD3 #Action2015 pic.twitter.com/9kA3OMtw9d

— United Nations (@UN) 15 julho 2015

In a surge in conversation around Addis today, our readers shared these key stories with their colleagues and networks:

1. Opportunity: Financing for Development conference
Dr. Ayo Ajayi | New Vision Uganda | July 15, 2015
While the world has witnessed great progress, pressing challenges remain. Ajayi underscores why Addis is a critical moment, and all governments, civil society organizations, businesses, and citizens must contribute to accelerate gains.

2. The AIDS response has been like no other
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon | Medium | July 14, 2015
In this post, the UN Secretary-General traces the history of progress on fighting AIDS (the world has exceeded MDG 6 targets), and outlines how the lessons learned from this work puts us on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

3. For #FFD3 success after Addis, the devil is in the data
Michael Igoe | Devex | July 15, 2015
Now that member states have finally reached an agreement (hooray!), it’s time to get to work on how we will monitor progress and resource commitments.

4. Investing in gender equality vital to economic growth, sustainable development, says Ban
All Africa | July 14, 2015
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Addis that increased investments in gender equality are critical to achieving sustainable development and growth.

5. Ordinary people making the extraordinary happen
Haile Gebrselassie | Mail & Guardian Africa | July 15, 2015
Our work isn’t over. As world leaders arrive in Addis Ababa, they need to ensure that the months of negotiations in the run-up to this summit amount to the new set of principles for financing our global poverty elimination efforts. Millions of children lives hang in the balance and concrete actions could lead to millions more lives being saved.

What #FFD3 is? investing ahead in the well being of our world, halting #climatechange & securing humanity's future: http://t.co/ezUTv2IIqU

— UN Development (@UNDP) 13 julho 2015

So what did countries agree to with the Addis Agenda? 

Technology: to establish a Summit in September to boost collaboration among governments, civil society, private sector, the scientific community.

Infrastructure: to establish a Forum to identify and address infrastructure gaps, highlight opportunities for investment and cooperation, and work to ensure that projects are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

Social protection: to adopt a new social compact for the provision of social protection systems and measures for all.

Health: recognized that taxes on tobacco reduce consumption and could represent an untapped revenue stream for many countries.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises: to promote affordable and stable access to credit for smaller enterprises.  They also pledged to develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the International Labour Organization Global Jobs Pact by 2020.

Foreign aid: to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance, and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent for least developed countries.

A package of measures for the poorest countries: to reverse the decline in aid to the poorest countries, with the European Union committing to increase its aid to least developed countries to 0.2 per cent of gross national income by 2030.

Taxation: The Agenda calls for strengthening support for the work of the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters to improve its effectiveness and operational capacity, and the engagement with the Economic and Social Council. It emphasizes the importance of inclusive cooperation and dialogue among national tax authorities.

Climate Change: The Agenda calls on developed countries to implement their commitment to a goal of jointly mobilizing USD100 billion per year by 2020 from a wide variety of sources to address the needs of developing countries. Countries also committed to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that lead to wasteful consumption.