As the first of three major development conferences this year, the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) in Addis Ababa is expected to play a fundamental role in laying the financial groundwork both for the post-2015 development agenda and the climate negotiations. With the current state of negotiations, however, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (Addis Action Agenda) signals a retreat of ambition and is far from upholding Monterrey and Doha, and much less in delivering any adequate response to the needs of the poor and the marginalized.