Video Message
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I thank the organizers for inviting me to address the 30th annual conference of the Economic Research Forum. It is unfortunate that I cannot be there in person.
You will be discussing a critical issue of our time – how to enable sustainable development in your region in a time of rising systemic risks, conflict, and waning trust in multilateralism.
Our focus is on accelerating progress on the SDGs and preventing further setbacks from crises.
For example, the challenges encountered in development financing include an investment crisis, driven by a sluggish global economy and tight financial conditions. These have been a key stumbling block to SDG progress.
The international financial architecture, crafted 80 years ago, has not kept pace with the scale and complexity of today’s challenges. It is no longer fit for purpose in a world characterized by rapidly changing economic geography, integrated financial markets, increasing systemic risks, and a growing climate emergency.
The United Nations Secretary-General has been very vocal on the need for rapidly scaling up financing, through an SDG Stimulus, and for ambitious reforms to the international financial architecture.
The SDG Stimulus is a comprehensive action plan to mobilize at least 500 billion US dollars annually to accelerate SDG progress, primarily through the multilateral development banks. There has been some important progress. For instance, the African Development Bank has emerged as a leader in using innovative approaches to stretch its lending capacity.
But the Stimulus alone will not be enough. We also need architecture reform, starting with more inclusive global economic governance.
Governance reforms can also pave the way for other reforms: for closing gaps in the debt architecture, for strengthening the financial safety net, and for a fairer and more inclusive international tax architecture.
Excellencies,
Making tangible and meaningful progress on global financing challenges can provide a much-needed boost to multilateralism. In this regard, last December, the General Assembly established an ad hoc committee to develop draft terms of reference for a United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation by August 2024.
In June 2025, Spain will host the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development – a follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Member States have called on this conference to address reform of the international financial architecture. It will provide a key opportunity for the international community to adopt an ambitious package of reform.
I count on your engagement to bring the critical perspectives, experiences and recommendations from your region to these global processes. Only with a truly inclusive and transparent process, can we achieve ambitious and fruitful outcomes that can bring transformative changes.
Thank you.