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UN development conference calls for global finance reform; some aid groups urge tax changes

Associated Press
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, center, arrives for the opening of The Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday, July 13, 2015. According to the organizers, the conference which runs from July 13-16 is intended to gather world leaders to "launch a renewed and strengthened global partnership for financing people-centered sustainable development". (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) (The Associated Press)

President of the World Bank Dr. Jim Yong Kim, right, reacts with Germany's Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr. Gerd Muller, at The Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, July 13, 2015. According to the organizers, the conference which runs from July 13-16 is intended to gather world leaders to "launch a renewed and strengthened global partnership for financing people-centered sustainable development". (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) (The Associated Press)

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, center, arrives for the opening of The Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, July 13, 2015. According to the organizers, the conference which runs from July 13-16 is intended to gather world leaders to "launch a renewed and strengthened global partnership for financing people-centered sustainable development". (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) (The Associated Press)

A U.N. conference has agreed to reform global finance to spur development and to channel funds to fight global poverty.

The agreement reached in Ethiopia late Wednesday by the third International Financing for Development conference to finance development projects is to be adopted by world leaders in September.

The conference agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals including ending hunger and poverty, gender equality and improving education.

But some aid groups say they are disappointed over the failure of the conference to create a U.N. global tax body.

ActionAid said that developing countries lose billions of dollars a year to tax dodging and are not being given an equal say in fixing unjust global tax rules. It said the lost money could be used by governments to provide basic services.