UN, African officials call for concerted efforts to achieve SDGs

Addis Ababa: United Nations officials, experts and decision-makers attending an ongoing high-level meeting on sustainable development have called for urgent reforms to the international financial system to boost efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

This came during the first preparatory committee meeting for the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which is held in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on July 22-26.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, addressing the meeting in a video message, highlighted the persistent challenges developing nations face and the imperative for ambitious global financial reforms, Xinhua news agency reported.

The UN chief said the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held in Spain next year, provides a unique opportunity to tackle these challenges head on.

"Together, we can deliver not only a financial system, but a world that is more just, equitable and sustainable," said Guterres.

Calling on world leaders to adopt ambitious reforms to deliver affordable long-term financing at scale and deliver the SDG stimulus, Guterres said the upcoming conference is an opportunity to reform an international financial system that is "outdated, dysfunctional and unfair."

He called for "maximum political will" to act and rescue the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the meeting the "disheartening reality" that only 17 percent of SDGs targets are on track, pointing to severe financial constraints facing developing countries.

"Many developing countries cannot invest in their future as they struggle to meet their immediate needs - paying salaries and meeting debt service," Mohammed said. "The economic outlook for developing countries remains bleak. While the global economy has been described as resilient, there is a soft landing in the North but there is a crash landing in the South."

She highlighted that the need for reform was evident in 2015, and the shocks since 2020 underline the urgency of delivering on commitments and creating an international financial architecture that can overcome global financial divisions.

"If we are to rescue the SDGs, we need much greater urgency, and much higher ambition," Mohammed stressed, outlining six key areas for action -- tackling the debt and development crisis, enhancing access to long-term, affordable financing, closing gaps in the global financial safety net, establishing a fair and effective international tax system, harnessing international capital markets, and responding to calls for global economic governance reform.

Ethiopia's Finance Minister Ahmed Shide called on all stakeholders to exert concerted efforts in undertaking a comprehensive reform of the global financing system.

The preparatory committee meeting starts the process culminating with the FfD4 in Spain in June-July 2025. More preparatory committee sessions are scheduled to be held in New York in December and Mexico City in February next year.