United Nations & Multilateralism - Archive

By Bodo Ellmers

In late January, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres sent a dramatic letter to UN Member States warning about the “imminent financial collapse” of the United Nations Organization. The letter followed earlier warnings that the UN Secretariat might have to reduce expenditure from the regular budget by 15 percent in 2026. This would mean reducing the workforce by about 2,600 staff. 

The situation for many of the UN funds and programmes that rely on voluntary contributions to [...]

From October 20 to 24, 2025, negotiations on a legally binding instrument on business and human rights will take place in Geneva (11th session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights).

The UN treaty aims to establish binding rules for companies to respect human rights and provide better access to justice for
victims of human rights violations. If adopted, it will pave the way for comprehensive legislation to [...]

By Celia Sudhoff

For several weeks now, Germany has been engaged in an intense debate about the welfare state. This was triggered by a statement made by Chancellor Merz of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) state party conference at the end of August: “We simply can no longer afford the system we have today.” Specifically, he wants to cut welfare payments and relieve the burden on the pension funds by making it more attractive to work into old age [...]

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 [...]

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 — [...]

From 4-6 November 2025, the United Nations (UN) will hold the second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) in Doha, Qatar. The first summit on social development took place 30 years ago in Copenhagen. The initiative for a new World Social Summit came from UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He had already spoken out in favour of a global summit in his 2021 Our Common Agenda report. At the time, he took up an initiative from the Club de Madrid. This [...]

By Karolin Seitz and Jens Martens

From May 19 to 27, 2025, States meet in Geneva for the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA). The central topic on the meeting’s agenda is the pandemic treaty. Governments want to use it to learn lessons from COVID-19 and be better equipped to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. After three years of intensive negotiations, governments agreed on the draft text of the treaty on April 16, 2025. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom [...]

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 [...]

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 Global People's Assembly 2024 will take place in person from 22-24 September at the UN Church Center in New York. In the PROGRAMME you will find event descriptions for everything happening over the three days. Because of technical challenges people will be able to follow online only the first day of the assembly.

Please click here to register to attend in New York in person

Please click here to register to attend the first day online

Tax dodging and harmful tax competition remain major challenges to mobilising sufficient resources for development and public services. A landmark agreement reached in New York on 16 August 2024 could finally provide the international community with an effective tool to tackle these problems. After three weeks of intense negotiations, an ad hoc committee of the UN General Assembly agreed on the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. The adopted ToR outline [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

From 22 to 26 June 2024, the international community gathered in Addis Ababa for the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the UN's Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). The well-attended meeting took place against the backdrop that time is running out to close the financing gap for the SDGs. At the same time, high debt levels in many developing countries are making it increasingly difficult to find suitable financing instruments. 

Wrapping up [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

International financial architecture (IFA) reform has been a hot topic lately. Numerous expert groups have made policy recommendations, and the developing countries among the UN member states in particular are calling for faster and more fundamental reforms. In the run-up to the Summit of the Future, scheduled for September this year, civil society organisations have been campaigning for a wide range of changes. The latest Spotlight on Global Multilateralism highlighted campaigns for more inclusive global tax [...]

National and regional go-it-alone efforts characterized government action against the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO), as the overarching and coordinating health body, to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of vaccines and other necessary medical products to contain the pandemic was not heeded. Several governments, philanthropic foundations, and the WHO launched the global multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) at short notice, with participation of pharmaceutical industry and other MSIs, as a key [...]

From October 15-17, it’s time once again for the "who's who" of global health experts to meet in Berlin for the World Health Summit. More than 6,000 participants are expected over three days. But will the right lessons be learned from the experience of the Corona pandemic to build a sustainable global health architecture?

For decades, the global community has struggled with the challenges of a highly fragmented global health architecture. Numerous international organizations, among them the World Bank and [...]

The World Bank is considered to be the most important multilateral development bank (MDB). Since it was founded in 1944 at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to finance the reconstruction of war-torn Europe, it has reinvented itself several times. The most significant change was the transformation from a reconstruction bank to a development bank. Today, the World Bank finances exclusively in countries of the global South, while continuing to be controlled by the economic powers of the global [...]

This expert discussion takes place as part of the Civil Society Policy Forum at the joint Annual Meetings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Marrakesh (Morocco). 

The objective is to discuss debt architecture reforms that are needed to address the new wave of debt crises, and how to take these reforms forward at the major multilateral institution-building opportunities that are upcoming.

Global Policy Forum Europe is co-organizing with a large coalition of debt specialist organisations and CSO [...]

The Global People’s Assembly 2023 will be on 17 (Sunday) and 18 September (Monday) in New York – at the UN SDG Summit and the UN General Assembly.

The Global People’s Assembly (GPA) brings people’s representatives together and creates a strong voice at the SDG Summit for the midpoint of Agenda 2030. The assembly will be in-person in the Church Centre of the UN (opposite the UN), with 300 participants expected. Participants can also join online — we look forward [...]

19 May, 2023

Geneva, Switzerland

At an online event held yesterday ahead of World Health Assembly’s 76th session, civil society experts raised concerns about the influence of private and philanthropic foundations during the COVID19 pandemic and the ongoing pandemic treaty negotiations at WHO and overall policy development on various human rights.

Experts highlighted that there is hardly any oversight and it can be often difficult to estimate scale of the influence of these unaccountable private foundations, including the likes of [...]

This new report Spotlight on Global Multilateralism offers critical analyses and presents recommendations for strengthening democratic multilateral structures and policies. Its contributors cover key areas such as peace and common security, reforms of the global financial architecture, calls for a New Social Contract, an inclusive digital future, the rights of future generations and the transformation of education systems. The report also identifies built-in deficiencies and weaknesses of current multilateral structures and approaches. This applies, inter alia, to concepts of corporate-influenced [...]

Further information on the report & download files

The world is in permanent crisis mode. Intensified international cooperation is urgently needed. The UN Secretary-General called for new ways to work together and proposed a Summit of the Future to respond to the multiple crises affecting people’s lives. UN Member States agreed that the Summit will take place in September 2024.

The preparatory process for this Summit provides an opportunity not only for governments and the UN but also for civil [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

The implementation of the 2030 Agenda has fallen massively behind. Insufficient development finance is a major reason for this, as the slowly subsiding COVID-19 crisis had led to a simultaneous collapse of all sources of finance. This year's UN High Level Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) should have been dedicated to building back better after the crisis. The title did retain the "building back better." De facto, however, the HLPF was overshadowed by a new wave of [...]

By Gabriele Koehler

“Feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over” (Bernardine Evaristo)

In recent years, a number of countries have re-labelled their foreign policy as ‘feminist’. Sweden introduced the concept 8 years ago.  Spain, Canada, France, Luxemburg, Mexico, Chile, and Libya, and others have issued feminist foreign policy statements. Germany has a commitment to feminist foreign policy in its governmental coalition agreement and is extending the term to development cooperation also; there is also [...]