The co-facilitators of the intergovernmental consultations on the outcome document of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) have released the first draft of the text. The 28-page document will be presented during a Permanent Representative-level meeting on 24 March 2025, marking the start of the first intersessional negotiation period.
In a letter dated 10 March, Permanent Representative of Zambia Chola Milambo, Permanent Representative of Norway Merete Fjeld Brattested, Permanent Representative of Nepal Lok Bahadur Thapa, and Permanent Representative of Mexico Alicia Buenrostro Massieu inform Member States that the first draft builds on comments on the zero draft received from delegations and stakeholders during the Permanent Representative-level briefing on 22 January, the townhall meeting for stakeholders on 7 February, and the third session of the FfD4 Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), held from 10-14 February 2025. Per the letter, the co-facilitators “made every possible effort” to capture this feedback with a view to “facilitating agreement on an ambitious and action-oriented outcome document.”
The first draft outlines a renewed global financing framework and spells out Member States’ commitments along the action areas of:
- Domestic public resources, including transparency and accountability in fiscal systems, alignment of fiscal systems with sustainable development, capacity support, and subnational finance;
- Domestic and international private business and finance, including: domestic financial and private sector development and enabling environments; access to financing, remittances, and correspondent banking relationships; foreign direct investment (FDI); private capital mobilization for sustainable development impact; aligning financial incentives with sustainable development impact; and sustainable business and finance regulation;
- International development cooperation, including official development assistance (ODA), South-South and triangular cooperation, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the system of public development banks (PDBs), and access to concessional finance;
- International trade as an engine for development, including the multilateral trading system (MTS) through the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional trade integration, policy space in trade agreements, and trade measures which restrict or distort trade;
- Debt and debt sustainability;
- International financial architecture and systemic issues;
- Science, technology, innovation, (STI) and capacity building, including: national innovation systems and STI4SDG roadmaps; technology transfer, knowledge sharing, capacity building, and financing for STI; and international cooperation on STI; and
- Data, monitoring, and follow up, including advancing the process on measures of progress on sustainable development that complement or go beyond GDP.
In accordance with the negotiation roadmap the co-facilitators circulated on 17 January, consultations will continue prior to the first round of intersessional negotiations. Following the presentation of the first draft, the first intersessional will run from 24 March to 4 April 2025, followed by informal informals and consultations, as needed. PrepCom4 will convene from 30 April to 1 May and resume for one day in June to agree on the final outcome document.
FfD4 is scheduled to convene in Seville, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July 2025, ten years after FfD3 adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) – the “financing arm” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Having concluded in 2015, the parallel negotiating tracks agreed two complementary frameworks to “enable governments to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and address the most pressing social and environmental challenges, such as economic inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation,” according to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB). FfD4 will seek to support reform of the international financial architecture as the 2030 deadline to meet the SDGs approaches. [FfD4 Website] [Updated Roadmap for FfD4 Negotiations] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on PrepCom’s Third Session] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on PrepCom’s Second Session] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on PrepCom’s First Session] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Financing for the Future Global Policy Dialogue]
