Development Finance & Tax Justice - Archive

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 [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

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 [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

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 [...]

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 [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

Negotiations on the outcome document of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) came to a sudden close on 17 June 2025, when the UN Preparatory Committee adopted the 'Compromiso de Sevilla' (Seville Commitment). Until the last moment, it was unclear whether the outcome document could be adopted by consensus, particularly given the USA's obstructive role in the final stages of the process. A draft document had been circulated to the parties under a [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

Negotiations on the outcome document of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) came to a sudden close on 16 June, two weeks before the actual start of the conference in Sevilla. This is only the second time that negotiations have concluded prior to the start of the conference: During the second FfD conference in Doha in 2008 and the third in Addis Ababa in 2015, fierce negotiations continued on site.

Talks intensified in [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) – due to be held next month in Sevilla– aims to drive forward critical reforms to the international financial architecture and to help close the significant financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the fourth and final preparatory committee (PrepCom) meeting, held at the end of April at the UN headquarters in New York, revealed the remaining points of contention. As informal negotiations continue over [...]

From June 30 to July 3, 2025, the fourth International Conference on Development Finance (FfD4) will take place in Seville, Spain. Expectations are high, as the conference aims to mobilize the means to close the enormous financing gap in climate and sustainable development, and to advance the reforms in the international financial architecture.
However, current global developments counteract these goals. The U.S. administration fundamentally questions multilateralism. Several European governments are drastically cutting official development aid (ODA) due to economic pressure [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

The 2025 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank took place against the backdrop of two new and rather unexpected shocks. The first was the trade shock caused by the USA’s announcement of tariff hikes, which triggered similar actions by US trading partners. The second was the aid shock caused by massive cuts in official development assistance (ODA) made by donor countries on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Although the full impact [...]

The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) is due to take place in Seville, Spain from 30 June to 3 July 2025. According to the United Nations (UN) Member States, the conference is designed to assess progress and obstacles in implementing the outcomes of the three previous FfD conferences in Monterrey (2002), Doha (2008) and Addis Ababa (2015), as well as agreeing on measures and initiatives to overcome obstacles and address new challenges in the face of global [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

On 10 March 2025, the UN circulated the new version of the draft global financing framework that the international community is due to adopt at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla in early July. The new version reflects interventions by Member States and other stakeholders made at the third session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom3) at UN headquarters in February. It is the basis for the actual line-by-line text negotiations that are [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

From 26 to 28 February 2025, the first key events of the South African G20 presidency took place as Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors held their inaugural meeting in Cape Town, the country’s coastal metropolis. The fifth edition of the Finance in Common Summit, the world’s major gathering of public development banks, took place at the same time, attracting around 2,000 delegates. South Africa is trying to pursue several important streams of financial architecture reforms during [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

The third session of the Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) took place at the United Nations (UN) headquarters from 10-14 February 2025. It marked the first round of negotiations on the actual outcome, as the zero draft of the conference’s outcome document – intended as the world’s key multilateral agreement on development finance – was released in mid-January. 

UN Member States and other stakeholders made the most of the five-day session [...]

The international community has made significant strides on the road to the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). On 17 January 2025, the UN released the draft outcome document for the upcoming Sevilla Conference. The set of multilateral agreements included in the document will become the main global policy framework for development finance, complementing earlier agreements such as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Monterrey Consensus. So what does the zero draft include? 

Debt takes centre [...]

The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) will take place in Seville in June 2025. This is against the backdrop of massive delays in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, not least due to deficits in development financing. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) financing gap, which was estimated at US$ 2.5 trillion in 2015, has not been closed or reduced over the last decade. Instead, it has grown to over US$ 4 trillion annually. In addition, the decade [...]

The international community gathered at the United Nations (UN) headquarters from 3-6 December for the second Preparatory Committee meeting for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which is set to take place in Sevilla, Spain, in late June 2025. Discussions in New York clarified country priorities and positions on FfD, building on concrete proposals outlined in a previously circulated Elements Paper. The meeting also served as a test of the level of ambition.

The New York [...]

The event is hosted by: Abong, CCRDA, VANTI, VENRO, Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, GPF Europe, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit, WEED

The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) will take place in Sevilla, Spain from June 30 to July 3, 2025. FfD4 is expected to catalyse the urgently needed policy change to mobilize the necessary funds for sustainable development and climate action. Therefore, it is expected to also set milestones in terms of reforming the international financial architecture.

From [...]

The UN has launched the "Elements Paper" for next year's Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla, Spain. The paper will form the basis for discussions at the upcoming second meeting of the FfD4 Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), which will take place from 2 to 6 December 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York. Here are my personal top 10 policy reforms, copied and pasted directly from the paper:

The Elements Paper Top 10:  [...]