What's New

Tracking the Sevilla financing for development commitments: Where do we stand one year on?

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.
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The global sustainability agenda needs a boost: Insights from the HLPF 2026

SDG pin

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.

Europe surrenders, Brazil pushes back: The G7 Summit in Evian in review

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 battle for global health supremacy: What's next for the WHO?

Deepening fragmentation and a collapse in funding have plunged the global health system into a crisis. A growing number of international organisations, health funds, and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) are operating in parallel, competing for resources and influence. This raises a central question: Who sets global health priorities and what role should the WHO play going forward?

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Publications

The global sustainability agenda on the defensive: Options for a Beyond 2030 Agenda

This briefing analyses the political and structural causes behind the lack of progress in implementing the SDGs and discusses different options for an effective “Beyond 2030 Agenda”, from questions of development financing and international cooperation to a fundamental debate about the current understanding of development policy. It is the final publication by our former director Jens Martens, who passed away in May 2026. We publish it in grateful memory of his longstanding commitment to global justice and sustainable development.
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Global health in crisis: Six theses on the role of private actors

Global health faces a profound structural crisis as public funding cuts and rising inequalities threaten the human right to health, leaving 4.5 billion people without basic services. Many now see an opportunity to bring in private actors to close the funding gap, with little critical scrutiny. Against this backdrop, Brot für die Welt, Global Policy Forum Europe and Misereor have outlined six theses on the role of private actors in global health, offering clear, actionable recommendations for the German government.
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The 2026 Forum on Financing for Development: Progress or paralysis?

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.
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The price of money

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 gained considerable prominence in development policy discourses in recent years and is also [...]

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This photo of SDGs on the beach was taken during the GEF meeting in Sri Lanka. Photo by Mike Akester, 2016.
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Mike Akester, 2016

The welfare state is under pressure: What to expect from the World Social Summit in Doha

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.

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