The world is found in Seville to revive development aid

Under the aegis of the UN. In addition, leaders and experts from around the world are found on Monday in Seville, Spain, for a conference on development of development. Furthermore, The sector is shaken by the vast budget cuts by US President Donald Trump and by international crises.

In total. nearly 70 heads of state and government, but no representative of the United States, are expected from Monday to Thursday in the Andalusian capital for this so-called “FFD4” conference, alongside 4,000 representatives of civil society and the main international financial institutions.

The objective. according to the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres is to find “solutions” in the face of the enormous needs of developing countries, which “suffer from an annual financing deficit estimated at $ 4,000 billion”, or 1500 billion more than ten years ago.

Among the personalities expected alongside Mr. Guterres. the world found seville revive development head of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez are the French president Emmanuel Macron, the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, the Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa and the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga.

Already consequences – World found seville revive development

The United States will not send anyone: the American administration has indeed slammed the door of discussions in mid-June due to a disagreement on the text submitted to the member states. accused of creating “new structures making duplicate” and of encroaching “on the sovereignty” of the countries.

This conference on development. the first since that of Adis Abeba in 2015, comes when Donald Trump initiated a drastic reduction in humanitarian aid in January, removing 83% of programs abroad of the USAID development agency.

The United States had so far been the main donor country. far from numerous agencies and humanitarian organizations, which ended up with a big hole in their budget, world found seville revive development especially since other capitals, such as Paris, Berlin and London, also revised their aid down.

This situation has already forced UNICEF to dismiss a thousand teachers in Rohingyas refugee camps in Bangladesh. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN has halved its humanitarian ambitions. And in southern Africa, progress in the fight against AIDS is threatened.

“Huge challenges”

“We are today confronted with immense challenges. ” insisted in a video message Pedro Sánchez, recalling that these funding problems weakened multilateralism, but also the “sustainable development objectives” and the fight against “the climate crisis”.

The situation of developing countries is all the more delicate since the level of public debt has soared since the COVVI-19 crisis. forcing these states to devote more resources to the reimbursement of their loans than to health or education.

This summit is also organized at a complex time for the world found seville revive development global economy. weakened by the increase in American customs duties and the numerous conflicts in progress, notably in Ukraine and the Middle East, which led to an increase in military budgets to the detriment of other expenses.

“In this eventful context. we cannot let our ambitions fly away,” warned António Guterres, who sees in this conference “a unique opportunity to reform the international financial system”, deemed “obsolete” and “dysfunctional”.

“A world that changes”

The draft declaration adopted upstream of the meeting goes in this direction. stressing that the financial system must adapt “to the realities of a world that changes”, by granting more space to southern countries within international financial institutions.

This text also calls for development banks to “triple” their loan capacity. donors to “ensure foreseeable financing” for essential social spending and the international community to better “cooperation” in the face of tax evasion.

This world found seville revive development “Seville compromise”. which will be completed during the conference by unilateral announcements, notably within the framework of an “action platform”, was praised by the European Union, but criticized by the NGOs, which accused the rich countries of having weakened the final document.

“Despite the beginnings of promising negotiations. the text was emptied of its substance under the pressure of the countries of the North, which favored their political priorities to the detriment of real financial justice,” denounced the NGO Coordination Sud group.