Almost sixty world leaders are expected in Seville (Spain) from Monday 30 June to Thursday 3 July for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to Agence Europe that its president, Ursula von der Leyen, and European Commissioners Jozef Síkela (International Partnerships) and Wopke Hoekstra (Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth) would be taking part.
This international event is taking place in a context marked by a decline in official development assistance (ODA) in many countries, including European ones. The United States, in particular, made a sudden and massive withdrawal of almost $30 billion, through the abrupt interruption of funding managed by its development agency, USAID.
According to European Council draft conclusions (see EUROPE 13667/10), the twenty-seven EU heads of state or government consider FFD4 to be “an important step towards establishing a renewed global framework for financing sustainable development”.
On Thursday 26 June, a source at the Élysée Palace stated that the goal was to send “a strong message on the development vision” put forward by the international community in Seville, with containing the effects of climate change at the heart of the objectives.
Towards a new financing architecture? Ways to more effectively mobilise private investment will be examined, based on the growing realisation that public aid alone won’t be enough to meet humanitarian and climate challenges.
According to a European source, USAID’s withdrawal has been a real “electroshock”, revealing the structural fragility of healthcare systems “maintained on life support” in developing countries.
New sources of funding, drawn from the flows of globalisation - such as air and sea traffic or plastics production - are also expected to be part of the discussions.
Other objectives relating to taxation, transparency, support for ODA and reform of the debt architecture are featured in a draft set of conclusions from FFD4, entitled the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’, adopted on 17 June by a preparatory committee - in the absence of the United States.
See the draft text of the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’: https://aeur.eu/f/hl2 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)