Ambitious UN Financing for Development outcome derailed by global north
The Compromiso de Sevilla falls short of the ambition needed to address the worsening debt and climate crises, poverty and inequalities in the global south.
New York - The outcome document of the fourth UN Financing for Development (FfD) conference in Sevilla, titled Compromiso de Sevilla adopted today in New York, falls far short of the ambition needed to address the worsening debt and climate crises, poverty and inequalities in the global south.
The negotiations of the outcome document started out with ambitious language on sovereign debt architecture reform, international tax cooperation and international development cooperation, and development finance more broadly. This was significantly weakened during negotiations, with many meaningful action-oriented commitments diluted due to the policy priorities of global north governments.
Jean Saldanha, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) said: “Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator is being celebrated as multilateralism instead of the highest level of ambition. What began as a critical opportunity to advance essential reforms that would give global south countries a seat at the decision-making table was ultimately derailed by sustained pressure from Global North countries, including the EU and UK, to pursue their policy agenda.
“While there is some positive language in the document, at a time when global south countries have been calling for the transformation of the international financial architecture, rich countries have once again shown their reluctance to give up their grip on the global economic system.
“Yet Sevilla must not be remembered as a missed opportunity - it must now serve as a platform for a renewed, people-centered agenda in the months and years ahead. This process has given global south countries a unique platform to make strong calls for the structural changes that are needed. The problems remain clear. The solutions are known. What’s missing is the political will from those who dominate the current broken system. The job is not yet done”
One of the clearest examples of global north obstruction in the run-up to the outcome document was on debt architecture reform. Despite strong calls from civil society and many global south countries for a meaningful intergovernmental process towards a UN Debt Convention, the final language retains the intergovernmental process but strips it of ambition. What remains is a vague promise of engagement with creditors - including the Paris Club - and a Working Group, now co-convened by the UN Secretary-General, IMF, and World Bank, to promote voluntary principles on sovereign borrowing and lending.
Iolanda Fresnillo said: “Instead of a commitment to redress the imbalances of a creditor dominated system, the outcome has been limited to a process to “make recommendations”. This is a weak mandate at a time when the worst debt crisis the world has ever seen is suffocating public budgets, threatening the entire Sustainable Development Goals agenda and preventing action on the climate crisis.
The EU consistently watered down the global south proposal for an intergovernmental process to establish a UN convention on sovereign debt, only to end up disassociating themselves from the very weak consensus language they’ve forced through. This is unacceptable”
On international development cooperation, the outcome document has failed to meet even the minimum expectations for credible progress, in a context of dramatic negative impacts of recent aid cuts.
Maria Jose Romero, Policy and Advocacy Manager for development finance at Eurodad said: “This outcome document lacks the much-needed UN-led meaningful reforms to the way international development cooperation is governed. It even directs the attention to a review process led by the OECD Development Assistance Committee, an exclusive forum led by rich countries. Ultimately, Global North countries have succeeded in continuing to exclude Global South countries from equal decision-making. While the outcome reaffirms the role of ODA as a source of development finance, Global North countries have proceeded with no time-bound commitments on development cooperation.
“The real reform required to empower the UN as the norm-setting body on development cooperation has been denied. We will continue to pursue this alongside global civil society.”
In spite of efforts to weaken text on international tax cooperation, Sevilla’s outcome does include several important sections on tax and transparency.
Tove Maria Ryding, Policy and Advocacy Manager for Tax Justice at Eurodad said: “The FfD outcome includes new government promises on promoting gender-just tax systems, increased international transparency and fair taxation of corporations and the world's richest. The negotiation of the UN Tax Convention, which starts in early August 2025, will be the moment to deliver on those promises.”
The UN Financing for Development Conference will take place from 30 June to 3 July. Governments from the global north and south are expected to attend. The next round of UN Tax Convention negotiations will take place between 4 and 15 August.
ENDS
Media contact: Julia Ravenscroft, Communications Manager, Eurodad: +44 7958184695/ [email protected].
Spokespeople available for interview:
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Maria Jose Romero – Policy and Advocacy Manager, Development Finance
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Iolanda Fresnillo – Policy and Advocacy Manager, Debt Justice
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Tove Maria Ryding – Policy and Advocacy Manager, Tax Justice
Notes to editors:
- The final outcome document and previous documents can be found here.
- To find out more about the global Financing for Development process see: https://csoforffd.org/