Development Finance & Tax Justice - Archive

Last year’s Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla produced an ambitious agenda to reform the international financial architecture and mobilize more and better development finance.

Many of its commitments called for action by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). With their Annual Meetings in Bangkok approaching, it’s time to take stock of progress. Have the two Bretton Woods Institutions delivered more development finance, strengthened governance and expanded the role of Special Drawing [...]

The debate over a global development agenda beyond 2030 has begun. One lesson should shape it from the outset: Ambitious goals are meaningless without the means to achieve them. 

The 2030 Agenda was underfunded from the beginning: The financial framework the international community could agree on were never sufficient to make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievable. The promised "billions to trillions" model - assuming that a few billion in public finance would mobilise trillions in private investment - never [...]

In times like these, simply refusing to lose sight of the long-term goals in the fight for a better world takes courage. Despite the backlash against the global sustainability agenda, government representatives and stakeholders gathered from 7 to 15 July 2026 at the annual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) to discuss progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda and its future. This blog presents the key insights that have emerged from the conference.

The global sustainable development agenda remains [...]

In July 2025, governments adopted the Sevilla Commitment, the UN's plan for financing development. We have launched a first independent assessment, which finds that the UN has mostly delivered where it can act alone. Member States are moving too slowly on commitments, and some commitments are even backsliding. But where the International Monetary Fund needs to act, progress has stalled, and civil society organisations have stepped in instead. Read the full assessment - 43 commitments, rated from done to backsliding.

The G7 Summit took place in Evian, France, from 15 to 17 May, with Chancellor Merz in attendance. In an effort to accommodate the current US administration, this year’s G7 communiqués make no mention of terms such as ‘sustainability’, ‘gender’ or ‘Agenda 2030’. Nor were any relevant measures agreed upon to achieve significant progress in these areas. 

The European heads of state and government emerged from Evian looking weak. Particularly shameful was the capitulation of the French G7 presidency under [...]

Watch the recording (skip to minute 17:30 to watch Bodo's presentation on the "Cost of capital", which is based on our briefing paper "The price of money")

Developing countries continue to struggle with unfair and unequitable borrowing costs and practices. The roots of the problem are complex and intertwined. The Compromiso de Sevilla calls for the establishment of a working group to propose a consolidated set of voluntary guiding principles on responsible sovereign borrowing and lending. 

However, even assuming that [...]

This briefing assesses the outcomes of the 2026 UN Financing for Development Forum, examining whether it delivered meaningful progress on implementing the Sevilla commitments or reflected broader paralysis in global economic governance. It finds that the forum largely failed to advance implementation, with weak outcomes, misplaced priorities in the agenda, and growing divergence among Member States limiting progress.

This month, the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) almost simultaneously released reports on development finance. The OECD’s data on official development assistance (ODA) for 2025 revealed a dramatic 23.1 percent decline in a single year – the largest drop the world has ever seen. The UN’s Financing Sustainable Development Report 2026 explores whether other sources of finance might fill this growing development financing gap. 

The collapse of ODA

“Never before have we seen [...]

Can the UN Financing for Development Forum in April deliver progress? Join us for a live discussion with participants in New York, offering first-hand insights into the political dynamics, key fault lines, and prospects for implementation.

The fourth round of negotiations on a UN framework convention on tax took place in New York from 2 to 13 February 2026. Discussions focused on establishing common international rules to improve the taxation of multinational corporations and extreme wealth, in line with sustainable development and human rights. In addition to the convention text itself, two protocols were discussed: one on the taxation of cross-border services, and one on the prevention and resolution of tax disputes.

1. The taxation of [...]

The past two years have felt like a marathon of summits. In particular, the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future in September 2024 and the International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla in July 2025 placed international financial architecture reform firmly at the top of the global agenda. 

Looking ahead to 2026, policy debate and institutional development are likely to unfold in a more fragmented manner, across a range of forums within the multilateral system. Nevertheless, a significant [...]

The G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in late November offered a once-in-20-years opportunity to promote a specific African agenda through the G20. The South African government set high expectations when it chose the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” for its presidency. 

As the G20’s only African member, South Africa concluded a series of four consecutive Global South presidencies – beginning with Indonesia in 2022, followed by India and Brazil. It also concludes the first full cycle of G20 Leaders’ Summits, which [...]

It was unprecedented in the history of multilateralism: The third round of negotiations on a UN tax convention marked the first time global tax negotiations took place on the African continent. Unlike OECD negotiations, the UN talks were not held behind closed doors, which enabled numerous civil society representatives and trade union organisations to travel to Nairobi to critically monitor them. Like the group of African states, they have long called for a paradigm shift in the taxation of multinational [...]

The 16th Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 16) took place last week amid global trade disruptions and a severe funding crisis across the UN system. While these challenges underscore the growing importance of UNCTAD’s role as a heterodox body for trade and other economic policies, they also made it a difficult moment to define the organization’s mandate for the next four years. Nevertheless, the outcome document was adopted by consensus and [...]

Governments in the global south pay significantly higher interest rates on loans and bonds than governments in the global north. This financial divide is a key cause of disparities in prosperity and development around the world. The price of money determines the extent to which a state can provide goods and services for its citizens like healthcare and education. It also determines how far necessary transformations, such as climate change adaptation, can be financed from domestic resources.

The issue has [...]

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is traditionally the key standard-setter and coordination body for official development assistance (ODA) – commonly known as aid. The current situation – where donors are slashing ODA at a record pace and diminishing its effectiveness by using scarce resources to promote national interests – is a challenge for the DAC, whose role includes ensuring accountability vis-à-vis commitments made. 

Political declarations on more and better ODA were recently made [...]

Creating better institutions for international tax cooperation is considered a key pillar of international financial architecture reform. The first round of negotiations for a comprehensive United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (FCITC) has just concluded at the UN headquarters in New York City. 

Building on preparations by three working groups, the negotiations lasted for two weeks and dealt with the core Framework Convention, as well as two additional protocols – on taxing cross-border services and on tax [...]

 

We have just launched our four-part weekly podcast series 'Global Finance Rewired', which explores the future of the international finance architecture (IFA). Hosted by our Managing Director Bodo Ellmers, the series features expert voices from the Global South to examine how global finance must change to meet today’s challenges.

Episodes

1. Tax justice and the UN Tax Convention
   Chenai C. Mukumba (Tax Justice Network Africa) offers insights into the new Convention’s potential to curb illicit flows and usher in [...]

From 30 June to 3 July 2025, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) took place in Sevilla, Spain. According to the United Nations (UN) Member States, the conference was designed to assess progress and obstacles in implementing the decisions of the three previous conferences in Monterrey (2002), Doha (2008) and Addis Ababa (2015), as well as agreeing on measures and initiatives to overcome the obstacles and address new challenges in light of current global crises. The main [...]

The following text is a transcript of a video statement by Bodo Ellmers providing an overview of the final day of the FfD4 conference in Sevilla. You can find the video here.

The final day of the conference focused on systemic issues – namely, the reform of the international financial architecture, including institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

A central theme was Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Many countries from the Global South voiced disappointment that the conference could [...]

The following text is a transcript of a video statement by Bodo Ellmers providing an overview of his third day at the FfD4 conference. You can find the video here.

Day three of the #FfD4 conference in Sevilla centred on two critical and politically charged issues: Trade and debt.

In the wake of renewed tariff disputes, trade featured prominently on the agenda. But as Bodo Ellmers from Global Policy Forum Europe noted, the conference offered no real solutions — [...]

The following text is a transcript of a video statement by Bodo Ellmers in which he gives an overview of his second day at the FfD4 conference. You can find the video here.
 

The second day of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla continued with the general debate, as UN member states, from Azerbaijan to Cuba and Algeria to Luxembourg, presented their national priorities and visions for the future of development finance.

Beyond [...]

The rising debt burden of developing countries and the lack of adevelopment-oriented debt architecture are impairing their ability to provide essential services in health, education, and social protection, thereby jeopardizing basic human rights. FfD4 has strongly focused on addressing debt issues and has introduced measures to better respond to the needs of countries. 

The creditor-oriented international debt resolution architecture has been identified as one important element to be reformed to overcome and better manage future debt crisis situations. Inclusive, multilateral [...]