Press Release
Hope Renewed for Keeping the Promise of the SDGs as World Leaders head to Sevilla
4th International Conference on Financing for Development, June 30-July 3
New York, 25 June 2025 – Amid mounting debt burdens and declining investment, to reduced aid and growing trade barriers, world leaders will gather in Sevilla next week for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4).
Access to food, health, education and water provides communities around the world a path out of poverty. But billions of people live in countries that pay more in interest on debt than on health or education.
Against this backdrop, the high-level gathering marks a pivotal moment for the international community to reaffirm that the ambition and commitments made to sustainable development in the landmark 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, remain strong; that international cooperation is delivering progress and action; and that the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endures.
Speaking at a press briefing today, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed stressed the need for immediate action, “A decade after world leaders embraced the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, we remain off course – the system is failing those it was meant to uplift.
“But Sevilla offers a chance to change course – to catalyze investment, address the debt and sustainable development crisis, and reform the rules of the system to put people’s needs at the center,” she added. “It sends a powerful message to the world that despite persistent headwinds, international cooperation is delivering progress and there is renewed hope in keeping alive the promise of the SDGs.”
In his remarks at the press briefing, Ambassador Héctor Gómez Hernández, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations highlighted, “This conference is an appeal to action and we have the extraordinary opportunity to send a very strong message to defend the international community’s commitment to multilateralism.”
In Sevilla, the global community will formally agree to a range of actions that advance the financing for development agenda. To unlock investment, member states will double support for mobilizing domestic resources, triple lending by Multilateral Development Banks, and remove constraints to private capital in frontier markets. To address the debt crisis, new initiatives will be launched to scale up debt swaps and debt pause clauses, and a borrowers’ forum will be established to share experience and coordinate approaches. To create a fairer financial system, member states will advance efforts to give developing countries greater voice in decision-making and call for a review of the role of Special Drawing Rights that assist countries in emergencies.
Co-facilitator of the negotiation process, Ambassador Chola Milambo, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations noted that the negotiated outcome document sent a message of hope to the world, “That we can tackle the financial challenges that stand in the way of the SDGs and that multilateralism can still work.”
From Sevilla to the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg, momentum is building to deliver solutions across debt, trade, financing and investment in support of the 2030 Agenda.
About FFD4
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), to take place in Sevilla, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July 2025, will bring together world leaders to advance solutions to financing challenges threatening the achievement of sustainable development. Governments, international organizations, financial institutions, businesses and civil society will commit to financing our future through a renewed global framework for financing for development.
The Conference is expected to adopt the Compromiso de Sevilla, an intergovernmentally negotiated outcome, which was approved for adoption by consensus at the Fourth Preparatory Committee Meeting for FFD4 (17 June 2025).
The Conference will mark the beginning of implementation of the outcome document, signaling a new phase of collective action on financing for development. Coalitions of countries and diverse stakeholders will announce ambitious commitments and solutions under the Sevilla Platform for Action that will operationalize the renewed financing framework and move from dialogue to delivery.
Media Contacts:
Francyne Harrigan, UN Office for Partnerships | harriganf@un.org
Martina Donlon, UN Department of Global Communications | donlon@un.org
Geneva Damayanti, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs | Geneva.damayanti@un.org
