Welcome to the United Nations 
Road to Sevilla 2025
2025 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development & 4th PrepCom for FFD4
[Scroll down to view the daily programme.]
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
Science, technology, innovation and capacity building
Panel discussion 3 on specific actions in the first draft of the outcome document on ‘II.G. Science, technology, innovation and capacity building’
Introductory remarks and moderation
H.E. Ms. Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations
H. E. Mr. Lok Bahadur Thapa, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations
Panelists
Mr. Ahmed Salman Zaki, Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
Ms. Lois Bruu, Vice President, Humanitarian and Development, Mastercard
Ms. Rougui Fouta Diallo, International Trade Union Confederation
Interactive discussion (2-minute time limit)
Background and Guiding Questions
Science, technology and innovation (STI) are advancing at an unprecedented scale and pace. However, leveraging its full potential for advancing sustainable development is constrained by deepening technological gaps; inadequate digital infrastructure and digital public goods; limited national capacity; and insufficient international support. Unregulated technological advances can also have unintended economic, environmental, and social consequences, and worsen gender inequality. Coordinated national and international efforts are needed to address these challenges.
The STI chapter has three areas of actions: first, actions to realize the full potential of STI in supporting sustainable development, including through strengthening innovation, technology transfer, knowledge sharing, capacity building, financing for STI, and international cooperation; second, actions to increase investment in resilient digital public infrastructure and digital public goods and close the digital divides; and third, actions to leverage digital financial services.
Panelists in this session are invited to pay particular attention to actions on the links and impacts of artificial intelligence on fintech. They are invited to address the following questions:
- How can the ECOSOC FFD Forum and related processes best support inclusive, multi-stakeholder dialogues on the intersection of technology, including artificial intelligence, fintech, and sustainable development—particularly in ensuring no one is left behind in the digital transition? (action 54 c)
- As AI-driven financial technologies evolve rapidly across different regions , are there sector specific common values, safeguards, or benchmarks that should guide their development and use to ensure they contribute to inclusive and sustainable development outcomes – and how can such guiding frameworks best be shaped through inclusive and representative global processes? (action 54 d)
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).