Global leaders will soon gather in Sevilla, Spain, for a historic UN Financing for Development Conference — which will set the agenda for how the global economic system will serve development in the coming years. This is the first ever to take place on European soil and the stakes could not be higher.
Now is the time to rebuild the global economic system – Eurodad
European development aid has entered a new phase of the European Union’s neocolonialist agenda. Its “Global Gateway” plan is a wishlist for infrastructure projects to be launched across the world by European companies, backed by liberal reforms to pave the way. At its heart: Africa, where at least half of all investments are set to land.
Once plundered of both its wealth and people by colonial powers, Africa now faces IMF-imposed austerity, obscene debt, and forced underdevelopment.
Decades of IMF interventions have locked African nations into cycles of debt, austerity, and economic dependency, stifling real development while reinforcing neocolonial control over the continent’s financial sovereignty.
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 the next few weeks, the journey promises to be challenging. Instead of the hoped-for final sprint towards an ambitious new global financing framework adopted by consensus, the road ahead resembles an obstacle race.
At the UN Conference on Financing for Development, the social dimension should be on top.
What are the true goals of multilateral Cooperation and Development?
Aid agencies across Europe and North America are seeing their budgets slashed. Replenishments to multilateral agencies from the International Development Association (IDA) through Gavi to the Global Fund are under threat. The countries most at risk are those most reliant on foreign assistance to fund investments in areas from infrastructure through health and education: the least developed countries where aid has traditionally accounted for more than six percent of GNI but (even before the recent cuts) that has dropped closer to four percent.
Many CSO’s have protested in the US and Europe to the cuts to aid budgets.
See www.eurodad.org and ActionAid shocked by decision to raid ODA budget | ActionAid UK
Questions and answers for a very important topic
Why do we need a United Nations Convention on International Development Cooperation? – Eurodad
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