By J Nastranis
New York | 26 June 2025 (IDN) — With increasing debt burdens, declining investment, reduced aid, and growing trade barriers, world leaders are set to convene in Sevilla, 30 June-3 July, for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4).
Access to food, health, education, and water provides communities around the world with a path out of poverty. However, billions of people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health or education.
In this context, the high-level gathering presents an opportunity for the international community to reaffirm their commitments to sustainable development as outlined in the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda. This event will emphasise the importance of international cooperation in making progress and maintaining the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At a press briefing on 25 June, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed mentioned the need for immediate action, “A decade after world leaders endorsed the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, significant challenges remain. Sevilla offers a chance to address these challenges, catalyse investment, address the debt and sustainable development crisis, and reform the system to prioritise people’s needs.”
A call to action
Ambassador Héctor Gómez Hernández, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations, stated, “This conference is a call to action, providing an extraordinary opportunity to reaffirm the international community’s commitment to multilateralism.”
In Sevilla, global actions will be agreed upon to advance the financing for the development agenda. Member states plan to increase support for mobilising domestic resources, enhance lending by Multilateral Development Banks, and remove constraints to private capital in emerging markets. New initiatives will aim to scale up debt swaps and debt pause clauses, and establish a borrowers’ forum to share experience and coordinate approaches. Efforts will also focus on giving developing countries a greater voice in decision-making and reviewing the role of Special Drawing Rights for emergency assistance.
Co-facilitator of the negotiation process, Ambassador Chola Milambo, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations, noted that the outcome document sends a positive message about tackling financial challenges related to the SDGs and affirming the effectiveness of multilateralism.
From Sevilla to the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg, there is momentum to develop solutions across debt, trade, financing, and investment in support of the 2030 Agenda.
About FFD4
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), scheduled in Sevilla, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July 2025, will gather world leaders to discuss solutions to financing challenges affecting sustainable development. Governments, international organisations, financial institutions, businesses, and civil society will commit to advancing a renewed global framework for financing development.
The Conference is expected to adopt the Compromiso de Sevilla, an intergovernmentally negotiated outcome, which was approved for adoption by consensus at the Fourth Preparatory Committee Meeting for FFD4 held on 17 June 2025. The Conference will initiate the implementation of this outcome document, marking a new phase of collective action on financing for development. Coalitions of countries and diverse stakeholders will announce commitments and solutions under the Sevilla Platform for Action to operationalise the renewed financing framework and transition from dialogue to delivery. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image: Venue of the conference, the Plaza de España in Seville. Creative Commons Licencse 3.0
