As negotiators at the United Nations’ (UN) Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FFD4) adopt the outcome document Roos Saalbrink, the Global Lead on Economic Justice at ActionAid, said:
“Adoption of the FFD4 outcome document is an important step towards the UN’s leadership in global economic governance, however, it does not commit to the system change that Global South countries have so long demanded.
FFD4 has come at a critical time. Many low-income and vulnerable countries are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, poverty and climate-induced crisis.’’
Our research found that more than three-quarters (75.3%) of all lower-income countries spend more on foreign debt than on healthcare, and more than half (51%) spend more on debt servicing than on education. The system is failing people in the Global South, and a reset of the system is urgently needed.
Roos added.
“Lives depend on what is in this outcome document, and ActionAid is concerned that Global North countries have continued to dodge their responsibilities and have refused to fully commit to debt resolutions at the UN.
We need to see significant progress in establishing a fairer and more representative financial system, hosted at a well-resourced United Nations.”
A further analysis of the final outcome document will follow.
ENDS
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About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 countries, including some of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty, including by shifting power to local organizations and movements.
