Inputs to the Outcome Document

Investment is necessary but not sufficient for achieving inclusive economic growth and decent work. The ILO MNE Declaration provides an investment framework for coherent and synergistic policies concerning job creation, enterprise development, formalization, skills development and protection of workers’ rights. Consultation with social partners can ensure that decent work is prioritized while also enabling enterprises to grow. And dialogue between host and home countries could lead to better alignment of policies and ODA to support investment facilitation for development.

This policy brief explores the urgent need to close the global education financing gap to meet SDG4 targets by 2030. With a shortfall of US$97 billion annually in low- and lower-middle-income countries, the lack of adequate public funding threatens broader development goals like poverty reduction, social stability, and climate action. The brief calls for long-term sustainable financing solutions, including increasing domestic resource mobilization, enhancing international cooperation, addressing debt distress, and further scaling innovative financing, to ensure equitable access to quality education and drive long-term socioeconomic progress.

This policy brief emphasizes the need for financing inclusive structural transformation to foster economic growth, create decent jobs, and ensure sustainable development. Developing countries face challenges due to limited financial resources, premature deindustrialization, and a shift towards low-productivity sectors. The brief recommends strengthening national public development banks, forming public-private alliances, and adopting tailored macroeconomic frameworks. These efforts, combined with social partner involvement and multilateral cooperation, are crucial to overcoming financing barriers and supporting long-term, inclusive development.

Culture is now recognized as a key driver of inclusive sustainable development, as recently evidenced in the UN Pact for the Future. However, culture remains sidelined in discussions and policies on the financing of sustainable development. A more systematic integration of culture into financing frameworks – spanning domestic public resources, private sector investments, development cooperation and trade – is fundamental for accelerating the implementation of 2030 Agenda and for advancing sustainable development in the post-2030 agenda, including through culture as a stand-alone goal.

Addressing both social and environmental objectives is essential to mitigate risks and seize opportunities related to the low-carbon transition. A just transition requires supportive financial flows and enabling financial systems. Member States can support mobilization of financial resources for a just transition by leveraging public development banks, incentivizing the use of financing instruments that attract private capital, developing comprehensive sustainable finance frameworks that consider social and environmental objectives, and developing capacities within the financial system.

Scaling up the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions

This brief presents evidence on coverage and financing gaps for universal social protection (USP), offering actionable recommendations for FfD4. The ILO estimates that to ensure at least a social protection floor, low- and middle-income countries require an additional investment of US$ 1.4 trillion (3.3 per cent of the aggregate GDP) of these countries. To close the financing gap countries must increase investment in social protection, raising effective coverage by 2 percentage points annually (SDG indicator 1.3.1). At the international level, debt relief should move at a faster pace and access to international emergency financing must be enhanced to enable regular investment in USP in a climate-volatile world and avoid repeated rounds of austerity.