Funding for development: 5 facts to be known before the Seville conference

For this purpose, world leaders, economists and other decision makers meet at the end of this month in the Spanish city of Seville to attend a major event, Fourth International Conference on Development FinanceAnd, which is described as “an opportunity that is repeated only once every contract” to reconsider how the world is funded for sustainable development.

What is development financing?

Development financing aims to answer a simple question, which is how the world finances a more just and balanced system for aid, trade and development?

The answer by the international community was the establishment of a system that mobilizes the entire international financial structure, including taxes, support, trade, and financial and monetary policies, towards the development agenda.

This system aspires to be as comprehensive as possible, by involving a wide range of sources of financing, which enables countries to achieve greater self -sufficiency, so that their citizens can live a healthy, productive, prosperous, and peaceful life.

In a special interview with United Nations news, Shari Spiegel, Director of Sustainable Development Finance in the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Department, said that development financing is centered on its essence on “Change the mechanism of the system’s work to enable developing countries to actual investment in their future”.

Among these sources of financing are multilateral development banks that provide financial and technical support to developing countries. The revised international and national trade and tax policies also contribute to the revitalization of developing economies. Official development assistance establishes a channel in which aid is flowing from developed countries directly to developing countries.

What is the importance of financing development?

From the height of the debts and the low investment to the shrinking aid and the lack of achievement Sustainable development goalsThe current system disappoints the hopes of the peoples that are supposed to serve.

People everywhere pay the price:

• The debts are increasing, investment is declining, and donor aid is shrinking.
• 600 million people may live in extreme poverty by 2030 if we do not change our path, and it will take other long decades to achieve sustainable development goals.
• Today, 3.3 billion people live in countries spending their debts more than health or education.
• Moreover, billions of people will continue to live in countries that give priority to payment of debts on development.
• This means less money for schools, hospitals, clean water and jobs – the basics that people need to prosper.

For people who face the consequences of the world inaction, this schedule is unacceptable.

What are the regular changes that should be made?

With the increase in commercial barriers and the decrease in official development aid annually, the usual work approach to financing development is not sustainable. The next conference in Seville provides an opportunity to change the path, mobilize financing on a large scale, and reform the regime’s rules to develop people’s needs at the heart of attention.

The conference will bring together states, civil society representatives and financial experts to discuss new curricula to finance development. More importantly, this conference will give developing countries a seat on the discussion table, so that they meet their needs in the process of international financial decision -making.

What is the role of debt?

In the current financing system, developing countries continue to pay exorbitant amounts to serve their debts, while at the same time they face borrowing costs that may reach twice or four times the costs of their counterparts in developed countries.

These costs tend to rise, especially during or after crises, which creates a vicious circle through which developing countries cannot bear the costs of developing the structures that enable them to pay these costs.

The United Nations Secretary -General, Antonio Guterres, said: “In the face of exorbitant debt burdens and high capital costs, the opportunities to finance the developing countries for sustainable development goals become limited.”.

What can be expected from the conference?

The Secretary -General said that a return to the path of eliminating poverty, hunger and inequality requires “Great ideas” And“Ambitious reforms”. He added: “The conference provides a unique opportunity to reform an outdated, insecure, and unfair international financial system.”.

Member States have reached an agreement on a draft launching an ambitious package of reforms and measures that countries must take to fill the 4 trillion dollar financing gap. The United States withdrew from the conference on Tuesday during the final negotiations on the final document, announcing that it did not agree to the draft.

Reform will be partially achieved by effective mobilization of all stakeholders – from the private and public, official and unofficial sectors, developing and advanced – and harmonizing their incentives and obligations towards a sustainable future. This includes emphasis on the pluralism of the parties as a basis for development, the increase in taxes that direct public funds towards international development goals, reduce the cost of capital for developing countries, restructure existing debts, and search for more innovative financing methods.

Shari Spiegel, Director of Sustainable Development Finance in the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Department, said: “Seville is a milestone. It is in fact the beginning of the operation, not its end. So, the question now is: How do we implement the obligations?”

Reforming a deformed financing system represents a challenge, but Shari Spiegel is optimistic about the ability of pluralism to accomplish this task.