"Development finance plays an important role for the countries of origin to address the root causes of irregular migration. Only by addressing the root causes can irregular migration be curbed and criminal networks disrupted,” Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna told the Third International Conference on Financing for Development on Wednesday.

He said that in addition, financial assistance should support a number of countries address the difficult situations they face as a result of very large migration inflows.

World leaders have convened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, from the 13th to the 16th of July in order to launch a renewed and strengthened global partnership for financing people-centered sustainable development. The Conference aims at looking at sources of finance for sustainable development to ensure that resources go where they are most needed in order to promote economic prosperity and improve health, education and employment opportunities.

The Outcome Document of the Conference will ultimately be an important milestone on the road towards the adoption of new sustainable development goals in the Post-2015 September summit and the Paris Climate Conference in December (Cop-21). Ideally the EU's perspective is that the Addis Ababa Conference will be the Means of Implementation pillar for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.