FFD4 Home Seville Platform for Action, 30 June-3 July 2025. Credit: United Nations
By Michael Jarvis
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 9 2025 – This June, world leaders will gather in Seville for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), a milestone opportunity to reimagine how the global economy delivers for people and the planet. But the real question isn’t whether this historic convening will happen. It’s whether it will matter.
Global systems are straining under the weight of overlapping crises: a ballooning debt burden across the Global South, massive financing gaps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and climate catastrophes that demand urgent and equitable funding.
And yet, even as needs escalate, traditional sources of foreign aid are in retreat. The U.S. and other major donors are pulling back, creating gaping holes in public budgets and threatening the survival of civil society organizations that provide essential services and accountability functions.
Michael Jarvis
We are facing a post-aid world. But that doesn’t mean we must accept a post-development world. In fact, the FfD4 conference, set for June 30 to July 3 in Seville, presents a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to reconfigure development finance – balancing funds that will come from taxes and raising sustainable debt with those to come as official development assistance or via philanthropic contributions.
And if governments are willing to be bold, they won’t be alone. Philanthropy can be a catalytic force backing systemic reforms. Funders can lead by example with commitments under the Sevilla Platform for Action that will bring together voluntary initiatives to deliver measurable progress to boost a renewed financing framework.
The current draft of the conference outcome document includes some encouraging steps: nods to progressive taxation, recognition of the need for fairer sovereign debt mechanisms, and reform of international finance institutions.
But as the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) notes, many proposals still fall short of transformative change. Key concepts like human rights, gender equality, and participation appear inconsistently and more as rhetoric than as guiding principles.
We can do more to center Global South voices in negotiations and this is one way in which philanthropy can step up – helping expand the participation of diverse voices to be at the table, ensuring the perspectives of those most affected by financing decisions are heard.
Funders can also support the technical and diplomatic engagement of Global South governments in negotiations, so their priorities are fully represented.
Beyond participation, there’s a pressing need to fill thematic gaps—particularly in underfunded areas such as debt justice, fair taxation, and protection of civic space. Philanthropic commitments that align publicly with the FfD4 goals can build credibility and create positive pressure for ambitious reforms.
Just as importantly, funders must be willing to invest beyond the conference itself, providing long-term support to translate declarations into tangible outcomes on the ground.
Consider the issue of sovereign debt. Today, over 50 countries are in crisis, with many spending more on debt service than on healthcare or education. Without systemic reform, these countries will remain trapped in cycles of austerity and underdevelopment.
Philanthropy can fund advocacy, support debtor country coalitions and research to unlock debt relief, but also invest in revising frameworks, including building in greater transparency and oversight, to ensure that when countries borrow in the future debt is more sustainable.
Tax reform is another area where funders can have a significant impact. In the face of reduced foreign assistance, countries will need to rely more on their own revenue mobilization, but in ways that don’t exacerbate inequality.
From reinforcing constructive engagement in shaping the new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to supporting watchdog organizations that expose illicit financial flows, philanthropy can help shift the narrative and the policy framework toward a fairer tax system and restore faith in tax as our “social superpower” that supports so many of the services that citizens rely upon.
Climate finance, too, demands a bolder philanthropic role. For example, we need to invest not just in raising new finance for climate mitigation and adaptation, but in ensuring those funds get to where they need to go.
Philanthropy can support government and civil society capacity to ensure that every climate dollar counts. None of this is about replacing governments. It’s about augmenting their ability to act in the public interest and holding them accountable when they do not.
Funders, such as the members of the Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative, have already demonstrated what’s possible when philanthropy aligns with governance reform. They’re not just writing checks, they are investing in a more trust-based, accountable and inclusive development finance system. That model must become the norm and for those funders interested to learn more there are peers ready to offer advice or join forces.
In an era when multilateralism is under strain and trust in public institutions is eroding, the role of independent, values-driven actors is more important than ever. The FfD4 conference is a moment to demonstrate that the international development community can still serve people and the planet if enough of us are willing to push in that direction.
Philanthropy has the agility, the resources, and the networks to lead that push. It must not be a silent partner at this time. The stakes are too high.
Michael Jarvis is the Executive Director of the Trust, Accountability, and Inclusion (TAI) Collaborative, a network of philanthropic funders advancing systemic reforms to build more inclusive and accountable governance globally.
IPS UN Bureau
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