The Diplomat
The IV International Conference on Financing for Development, which will take place in Seville from June 30 to July 3, 2025, will have as its main objective the mobilization of funds for Agenda 2030.
In a note released by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is stated verbatim that the objective of this meeting, which will be held for the first time in Spain, after the editions that took place in Monterrey (2002), Doha (2008) and Addis Ababa (2015) is “to promote the implementation of policies and mobilize financial resources by the international community to meet the commitments of Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals at a global level.”
Spain sees the Conference “as an inclusive space, in which all countries sit at the table and which has the participation of all interested actors, with an open, integrative and transparent consultation process”.
According to the Ministry headed by José Manuel Albares, the choice of our country as the venue for the conference “demonstrates Spain’s leadership in achieving consensus, openness to dialogue, building bridges between multiple actors and the support and solidarity of Spanish citizens”.
The note points out that the world has changed significantly in the last decade, in which we have witnessed accelerated advances in digitalization, a rapid evolution of the global macroeconomic and financial panorama and growing systemic risks, especially related to climate change, pandemics and conflicts.
“All these trends – it says – have affected financing for sustainable development in all areas of action. Therefore, the holding of an International Conference on Financing for Development has never been so urgent to achieve progress that allows adequate and sustainable access to financing”.
This financing agenda, which will be updated and expanded at the conference, includes essential issues such as fiscal policies, international cooperation to combat illicit flows and tax evasion, Official Development Assistance (ODA), private financing, trade, debt sustainability, science and technology and the reform of the governance of the international financial system, the note indicates.
According to Foreign Affairs, the conference will be essential to align the development agendas of the United Nations, international financial institutions and development banks, and the rest of the relevant actors in the matter.
The Ministry also assures in its note that the choice of Spain as the venue “reflects, in addition to the leadership of our country in achieving consensus, the support and involvement of our society.” “In fact -he says-, Spanish citizens have always been committed to the fight against poverty and hunger, the eradication of inequalities and gender gaps, the promotion and protection of human rights, shared economic prosperity, environmental protection and climate action, peace and the construction of more just and inclusive societies, in which no one is left behind.”