Addis Ababa, July 22, 2024 (FBC) – The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres called on world leaders to move forward with a determination to rescue the 2030 Agenda.
The preparatory committee for the 4th international conference on the financing for development (FfD4) has kicked off in Addis Ababa today.
The five-day conference is expected to review progress and gaps in implementing the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and identify actions in order to accelerate reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In his video recorded message to the gathering, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said “yet despite progress, we must face facts, many commitments remain unfulfilled,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the world is facing seismic shocks that make financing challenges are there to solve, he said, adding on the other hand, geopolitical divisions undermine collective action.
Faced with sky high debt burdens and cost of capital, developing countries have limited prospects of financing the Sustainable Development Goals, he explained.
Thus, the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development provides a unique opportunity to tackle these challenges, according to the secretary-general.
It opens the door for more leaders to adopt ambitious reforms to deliver affordable long term financing at scale and deliver the SDG stimulus.
It presents a unique opportunity to reform an international financial system that is outdated, dysfunctional, and unfair from the debt architecture, the system of public development banks to trade and investment rules to the financial safety net and global governance, Guterres elaborated.
He added “your process as a unique mandate to look at all these pieces of the puzzle in a holistic manner and through the prism of the 2030 agenda, will need the best ideas to inform discussions and maximum political will to act.”
The secretary-general further urged that “I count on all of you to move forward with the determination to rescue the 2030 agenda. And together we can deliver not only a financial system, but a world that is more just equitable and sustainable.”