Oxfam reaction: Financing for Development Conference in Seville

In response to the conclusion of the Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Seville, Spain, FFD Global Policy Lead Hernan Saenz said:

“Seville was a key moment in an ongoing journey to fight inequality, achieve gender justice and reform the international debt architecture under the UN. The conference showed that considerable challenges remain to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. But it also paved the way for governments to build more coalitions to tax the super-rich and finance care, and put equality, democracy and sustainability at the core of their efforts. In a context of geopolitical uncertainty, multilateralism is the way ahead.”

“Despite the lacklustre ambition of the Compromiso de Sevilla where rich countries shirked their responsibility to act on the debt crisis and continued to embrace the private finance first approach to development, this conference also showed what international cooperation can achieve when there is political will for it. Our new research found that the new wealth of the top 1% surged by over 33.9$ trillion since 2015. This is enough to end annual poverty 22 times over, yet over three billion people still live in countries that spend more on debt repayments than on education or health. Therefore, we welcome the new alliance to tax the super-rich launched by Spain and Brazil, with the support of South Africa and Chile.

"We also welcome the new care financing initiative by Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. These coalitions provide much needed political ambition and have the potential to deliver vital funding towards the Sustainable Development Goals and fight extreme inequality, which disproportionately impacts women and girls.

“We are very concerned by the limitations placed on civil society over the course of the conference to do what we came here to do: tell truth to power. Civil society organizations are the backbone of democracy. The UN was built to defend human rights - if it cedes to the global trend of shrinking civic space, it will undermine its legitimacy.”