Guterres Calls for Bold Action at First Lasting Finance Summit
UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the inaugural Summit for a Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Global Economy in New York today, emphasizing the urgent need for increased and reformed development financing. He framed the Summit not as just another meeting, but as a landmark possibility for “networked, inclusive multilateralism” – bringing together heads of international financial institutions, leaders from the G7, G20, and COP30, and crucially, representatives from developing nations.
Guterres highlighted the growing gap in development funding and increasing debt distress that prompted the proposal for this biennial Summit four years ago, a proposal welcomed in the Pact for the Future. He stressed the importance of responding to the concerns of citizens struggling globally and demanding action from their leaders.
The Summit rests on three core principles: cooperation,particularly given declining aid and rising trade tensions; coherence,to unify fragmented discussions on development finance; and inclusivity,ensuring developing countries have a stronger voice in decisions impacting their future.
While acknowledging growing consensus on key areas – including mobilizing more financing for the Sustainable Development Goals and reforming the international financial architecture – Guterres urged participants to move beyond agreement to concrete action.He pointed to recent progress at the Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla, outlining specific areas for advancement:
* Increased Financing: strengthening domestic resource mobilization, tripling the lending capacity of multilateral development banks, and leveraging more private finance.
* Debt Relief: Developing new instruments to lower borrowing costs and mitigate risks, particularly from climate change, and providing faster support for countries in debt distress.
* Fairer Systems: Amplifying the voice of debtor nations, exploring solidarity levies, and promoting inclusive international tax cooperation.
Guterres concluded by challenging leaders to translate the Summit’s “powerful display of political capital” into tangible results. He called on multilateral organizations to deliver on existing commitments, multilateral platforms to champion new efforts, and country groupings to identify their most pressing needs and priorities. “Meetings are not the objective,” he stated,”they are the means to deliver for people who are looking for action now.”
