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2025 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development & 4th PrepCom for FFD4
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The ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development will be held on 28 to 29 April 2025, followed by the Fourth Preparatory Committee (4th PrepCom) Session for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) from 30 April to 1 May 2025 at Trusteeship Council, UN Headquarters, New York.
On 28 April, in an exceptional joint effort by the President of ECOSOC and the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee of FFD4, Ministers and high-level officials will have the opportunity to express their views and foster political momentum for the FFD4 Conference.
The Forum this year assumes added importance and a critical role in mobilizing momentum and concrete solutions for FFD4. Held back-to-back with the 4th FFD Preparatory Committee session, the deliberations of the forum will feed into the discussions on the outcome of the FFD4.
Both events bring together ministers and high-level government officials as well as senior officials of international organizations. Civil society organizations, the business sector and local authorities will also be represented.
The 2025 Forum and the 4th PrepCom will be livestreamed on UN Web TV.
Please click on the category in this Participate page that best describes your organization to find the suitable registration portal.
Programme of FFD Forum and 4th PrepCom
Click here for the pdf version of the FFD Forum programme.
Click here for the pdf version of the 4th PrepCom programme.
Click here for the pdf version of the FFD Forum & 4th PrepCom programme of Side Events or click here to view the Side Events on the UN Journal
Programme for 30th April, 2025
Debt and the Cost of Borrowing
Panel discussion 2 on specific actions in the first draft of the outcome document on ‘II.E. Debt and debt sustainability’
Introductory remarks and moderation
H.E. Ms. Merete Fjeld Brattested, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations
H.E. Mr. Chola Milambo, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations
Panelists
Mr. Phil Stevens, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, United Kingdom
Ms. Monica Asuna, The National Treasury, Kenya
Mr. Jose Correia, Director General, Economic and Development Cooperation, Cabo Verde
Discussants
Mr. Gianpiero Leoncini, Executive Vice-President, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean
Interactive discussion (2-minute time limit)
Background and Guiding Questions
Amid successive crises and shocks, sovereign debt challenges have become one of the greatest obstacles to realizing sustainable development. Many developing countries face high debt service burdens and borrowing costs, which severely constrain their fiscal space and ability to address poverty and inequality and invest in sustainable development. Despite progress in reforming the debt architecture, restructurings are often still inadequate, late and too lengthy. A development-oriented debt architecture, based on sound and transparent analysis of debt sustainability, is urgently needed to address these debt challenges.
The debt chapter outlines four areas of actions to address these challenges, including actions to: i) strengthen debt management, debt transparency, and responsible borrowing and lending; ii) lower borrowing cost and enhance fiscal space for investment in sustainable development in developing countries; iii) achieve efficient, fair, predictable, coordinated, timely, and orderly restructurings; and iv) promote debt sustainability and credit assessment that are more accurate, objective and long-term oriented.
Panelists in this session are invited to pay particular attention to the proposals on strengthening and systematizing of liquidity and liability management support and on closing gaps in the debt architecture. They are invited to address the following questions:
- What are the key constraints to scaling up and ensuring coordinated support to countries to enhance fiscal space and lower their cost of borrowing, and to provide related financial instruments, such as debt swaps and credit enhancements at scale? (action 42)
- How can we provide such support at scale, taking into account the need for providing financial support, and for responsiveness to country-specific needs and circumstances? (42b)
- What are the most critical gaps that need to be closed to create a development-oriented debt architecture? (action 43).
Programme for 1st May, 2025
Domestic Resource Mobilization
Programme
Panel discussion 4 on specific actions in the first draft of the outcome document on ‘II.A. Domestic public resources’
Introductory remarks and moderation
H.E. Ms. Merete Fjeld Brattested, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations
H.E. Mr. Chola Milambo, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations
Panelists
Ms. Josephilda Hlope, Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, South Africa
Mr. Felipe Augusto Ramos de Alencar da Costa, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Brazil
Mr. Alain Siri, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Burkina Faso
Discussants
Ms. Mary Baine, Deputy Executive Secretary, African Tax Administration Forum
Ms. Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director, UN-Habitat
Interactive discussion (2-minute time limit)
Background and Guiding Questions
Domestic public resources are the cornerstone of sustainable development, providing fiscal space to invest in sustainable development, and generating incentives that shape economic and societal outcomes. Many developing countries still face significant obstacles in mobilizing domestic revenues and effectively utilizing their fiscal systems. These challenges stem from both domestic and international factors. Domestically, insufficient transparency and accountability in fiscal systems, weak alignment of fiscal policies with sustainable development, limited institutional capacity, and the underutilization of National Public Development Banks can hamper resource mobilization and effective use. International tax cooperation remains weak, and persistent challenges hinder the effective combatting of illicit financial flows.
The first draft of the outcome document for FFD4 addresses these challenges with concrete actions in four areas: first, commitments to ensure that countries have the necessary resources and that they are collected efficiently and spent transparently in alignment with sustainable development; second, strengthened international tax cooperation to ensure that international tax rules respond to the diverse needs, priorities, and capacities of all countries, especially developing countries; third, effectively combating illicit financial flows; and fourth, fully leveraging the potential of national public development banks.
Panelists in this session are invited to pay particular attention in their interventions on the proposals on support for domestic revenue mobilization and on combatting illicit flows and are invited to address the following questions:
- What room is there to significantly and further enhance international support to countries for domestic resource mobilization? What value would there be to setting an indicative floor for tax-to-GDP ratios that could galvanize action? (action 22 m)
- Which are the key components of a meaningful package of actions to advance the fight against illicit financial flows in Seville? (action 24)
- How best should a special meeting of the ECOSOC on financial integrity be designed to have impact and address financial integrity at the systemic level? (action 23 c).