Scorching temperatures, vacant seats overshadow UN’s premier development event

Intense heatwave hit Spain this week, a searing indication of the climate change affecting the globe’s most vulnerable nations – straining their economies as public debt reaches record levels. However, during a UN development finance conference held once a decade in Seville, two critical elements were notably scarce: funds and influence.

Only one G7 leader—France’s Emmanuel Macron—was present at the gathering, where he and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke to rooms largely occupied by empty seats. Organisers originally anticipated 70 heads of state; this number was reduced to 50 as the conference began. Meanwhile, leaders in Washington, Paris, London, and Berlin are reducing aid and decreasing bilateral loans while shifting focus to defense spending and increasing domestic debt.

“The mood is … I would say realistic, but also a sense of unity and of pragmatism,” said Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund of Agricultural Development, adding the question on everyone’s mind this week was how to do more with less.

“How can we come together, or think out of the box, or create new type of ways of really stretching it more?”

The Financing For Development conference is a premier UN gathering, outlining the path to address necessary changes in tax policies, aid expenditures, and critical sectors like debt, health, and education. Its results influence global aid allocation and UN strategies for the next decade. There is little disagreement regarding the necessity for action; century-level floods and storms are occurring with disturbing frequency, and increasing debt servicing costs are diverting funds from health, education, and infrastructure investments in developing countries.

However, even leading figures from the developing world such as Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados and notable global climate advocate, along with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is presently chairing the Group of 20 major economies, withdrew from the event at the last moment.

The media room was filled with uninterested Spanish journalists chatting about a local political scandal as frustrated civil-society leaders roamed the corridors, displeased with the diluted agenda and insufficient fiscal or political strength.

“We are facing a backsliding of many agendas that we had advanced a few years ago,” said Henrique Frota, director of ABONG, a Brazilian association of NGOs. “Developed countries are reducing their investment in (official development assistance) and European countries are not fulfilling their commitment … they are giving less and less money right now for every kind of agenda.”

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed recognized that the turnout was not as glamorous as anticipated and noted that public finances are strained.