Garfield Ekon
Staff Writer
The world is facing an annual financing gap of about $4 trillion to achieve sustainable development, leaving countries with hardly any resources to invest in better education, healthcare, renewable energy, or social protection.
United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres who made the remarks at the 2024 Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development, said there needs to be a “surge in investment” to give developing countries a chance to build better lives for their people.
“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are hanging by a thread, and with them, the hopes and dreams of billions of people around the world,” the Secretary General said, adding that countries should push for the SDG Stimulus of $500 billion annually in affordable long-term finance for developing countries, which he proposed in February 2023.
“Now it’s time to move from words to action and deliver affordable, long-term financing at scale,” he said, while also calling for “greater representation” of developing countries in global financial systems.
“The countries who need these systems and institutions most were not present at their creation, a lack of representation that continues to this day,” he said, emphasising the urgent need for change.
He highlighted that the Summit of the Future Opens in a new window, which will be held on September 22, and 23, 2024, in New York, and the 2025 Financing for Development Conference in Spain as “key opportunities” to gather world leaders to reform the global financial architecture.
“Let us make the most of these opportunities. Now is the time for ambition. Now is the time for reform. Now is the time to shape a global economic and financial system that delivers for people and planet,” he said.
For his part, President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis told the forum that a “relentless focus’ needs to be on the financing crisis, as the 2023, the global public debt reached a staggering $313 trillion and over the last decade, increasing far more rapidly in developing nations than in developed ones.
“Worse, developing countries are paying twice as much in interest on their total sovereign debt stocks than developed nations, hobbling them further as they try to ascend the development ladder,” he said.
Adding that nearly half of humanity, or 3.3 billion people, live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education or health, he stressed that “no nation, I repeat, no nation, should be forced to gamble with their future, countries must be enabled to channel their resources towards uplifting their communities and building resilience rather than servicing excessive debt,” Mr. Francis stated.
