Welcome to the United Nations 
FFD4 Programme
FFD4 conference will feature a dynamic and inclusive programme comprising the official programme, side and special events, and other key events and activities. These key events such as the Civil Society Forum, the International Business Forum, and the Sevilla Platform for Action, which together foster broad-based engagement and collaboration among all stakeholders.
Click here for the official Proposed Organization of Work document.
Please note that all times in the schedule are in Sevilla time (CEST).
Multistakeholder Roundtables Draft ProgrammeFFD4 At a Glance: OVERALL Programme OvervieW (PDF)FFD4 ON UN JOURNAL
| Event | Programme Links | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Official Programme: Plenaries | Scroll Below to View Online / Overview (PDF) | FIBES 1, Pavilion 1 |
| Official Programme: Multi-Stakeholder Round Tables | Scroll Below to View Online / PDF Version | FIBES 1, Pavilion 2 |
| Sevilla Platform for Action | To be added | Initiatives Room* FIBES 1, Pavilion 2 |
| Special Events | View Online | Special Events Room** FIBES 1, Pavilion 2 |
| Side Events | View Online / PDF Version | FIBES 2 |
| International Business Forum | View Online / PDF Version | FIBES 2 |
| Press Conferences | To be added | Press Briefing Room FIBES 1, Pavilion 3 |
*Sevilla Platform for Action Special Event scheduled on Monday, 20 June at 2:00 p.m. will be held in the Special Events Room.
**Some Special Events will be held at Side Events Rooms, please check the Special Events programme for more details.
Official Programme (Plenaries & Multi-Stakeholder Round Tables)
The official programme of FFD4 features high-level opening, plenary, and closing sessions. In addition, six multi-stakeholder roundtables—co-chaired by Heads of State and Government—will address some of today’s most pressing topics, aligned with the FFD action areas and the outcome of the conference.
Programme for 3rd July, 2025
FFD4 Seventh Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Eighth Plenary Meeting and Closing of the Conference
- General debate
- Credentials of representatives to the Conference: report of the Credentials Committee
- Multi-stakeholder round tables: reports by the Co-Chairs Adoption of the outcome document of the Conference
- Adoption of the report of the Conference
- Closure of the Conference
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 6: “Reforming the international financial architecture and addressing systemic issues”
Co-Chairs:
• H.E. Mr. Carlos Cuerpo Caballero, Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Spain
• Co-Chair (tbc)
Keynote:
• H.E. Mr. Faure Gnassingbe, President of the Council of Ministers, Togo
Moderator:
• Mr. Sergio Díaz-Granados Guida, President, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) (tbc)
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. Nogui Acosta Jaén, Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance, Costa Rica
• H.E. Mr. Mthuli Ncube- Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Zimbabwe
• H.E. Mr. Facinet Sylla, Minister of Budget, Republic of Guinea
• H.E. Mr. Hervé Ndoba, Minster of Finance and Budget, Central African Republic Central African Republic
Discussants:
• Mr. Carlo Monticelli, Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (tbc)
• Mr. José Viñals, GISD Alliance Co-Chair and Senior Advisor to the Board, Standard Chartered
Background
Despite efforts in recent years, the gap between development goals and available financing has widened significantly. The global economic outlook remains fragile, marked by high levels of uncertainty, heightened geopolitical and trade tensions, persisting inflationary pressures.
To strengthen governments’ ability to respond to shocks and sustain essential development investments, FFD4 has an explicit mandate “to support reform of the international financial architecture” (IFA). As emphasized in the Compromiso de Sevilla, three interrelated areas of action stand out. First, the outcome document calls for strengthening global economic governance - by enhancing the voice and representation of developing countries in international financial institutions, ensuring they can participate more meaningfully in decision-making processes and crisis response mechanisms. Second, FFD4 supports strengthening the global financial safety net (GFSN) to address persistent gaps and uneven coverage. The document supports the role of the IMF at the center of the GFSN through calls for governance reforms, easier access to precautionary instruments, lower lending costs, and better use of Special Drawing Rights. It also aims to enhance the complementarity of the layers of the GFSN and emphasizes the need to strengthen existing and new regional financial arrangements and mechanisms - particularly in Africa. Third, the document also addresses IFA features that can, even unintendedly, impede the flow of crucial capital flows to developing countries, such as credit ratings and engagement with credit rating agencies, potential regulatory barriers in international financial standards, and frictions in cross border payments.
Guiding Questions
1) How do you intend to take forward key actions of the Sevilla outcome?
2) How can the international financial architecture be reformed to strengthen representation and voice for developing countries - beyond voting rights realignments alone?
3) How can the IMF play a more effective role in the global financial safety net? More specifically on SDRs, what should be the main components of the new ‘playbook’, which would facilitate more timely decisions on issuance and rechannelling of SDRs?
4) How should the international financial architecture evolve to better support long term investment and sustainable development, including through prudential regulation and engagement with credit rating agencies that countries have committed to in the Sevilla outcome?
Programme for 2nd July, 2025
FFD4 Fifth Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Sixth Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 4: “Upholding the multilateral trading system, and harnessing the potential of science, technology and innovation”
Co-Chairs:
• H.E. Ms. Nadia Fettah Alami Minister of Economy and Finance, Morocco
• H.E. Ms. Melita Gabrič, Deputy Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Minister for Development, Slovenia
Keynote: Deputy Prime Minister, Azerbaijan (tbc)
Moderator: Ms. Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. Shane Reti, Minister for Science and Innovation, Minister for Pacific Peoples, Minister for Statistics and Universities, New Zealand
• H.E. Mr. Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Burkinabè Abroad, Burkina Faso
• H.E. Mr. Ville Tavio, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Finland (tbc)
• H.E. Mr. Neal Rijkenberg, Minister of Finance, Eswatini
Discussants:
• Mr. Muhammad Al Jasser, President, Islamic Development Bank (tbc)
• Mr. Mariano Jabonero, Secretary General of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) (tbc)
Background
International trade is an engine for inclusive growth and poverty eradication and contributes to the promotion of sustainable development. Yet, the multilateral trading system is increasingly under threat. Trade restrictions, including tariffs inconsistent with WTO rules, principles and commitments, are on the rise globally amidst rising trade tensions and stalling multilateral negotiations. At the same time many developing countries with limited productive capacities and trade infrastructure continue to experience challenges in integrating into regional and global value chains and generating higher-value addition in commodities and critical minerals.
Over the last decades, the world has seen unprecedented progress in science, technology and innovation (STI). While technology holds promises in advancing sustainable development and resilience, enhancing productivity, creating new industries and business models and contributing to poverty eradication, it can also have unintended economic, environmental and social impacts. Moreover, developing countries’ ability to leverage its full potential remains constrained. Deepening gaps in innovation and access to technology and inadequate access to digital infrastructure, data and digital public goods have resulted in persistent digital divides between and within countries.
The Compromiso de Sevilla outlines commitments to uphold the multilateral trading system and harnessing the potential of STI. On international trade, it reaffirms the principles of the multilateral trading system and lays out specific actions to improve capacities to trade and increase local value addition for commodities and critical minerals, with a focus on the furthest behind. The Sevilla outcome also puts forward measures at the national and international levels to close digital divides and leverage scientific and technological advances.
Guiding Questions
- What actions and commitments related to trade and STI in the Sevilla outcome are of highest priority from your perspective, and how will you advance their implementation?
- How do you plan to build on the outcome document in Sevilla to support developing countries’ integration in regional and global value chains and local value addition of critical minerals and commodities?
- How can commitments in the Sevilla outcome document help closing digital divides within and between countries?
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 5: “Realizing a development-oriented sovereign debt architecture”
Co-Chairs:
• H.E. Mr. Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government, Spain
• Co-Chair (tbc)
Special address by Head of State and Government:
• H.E. Mr. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister, Antigua and Barbuda
Keynote:
• Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Laureate
Moderator:
• Mr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. David Lammy MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, United Kingdom
• H.E. Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Honorable Finance Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh
• H.E. Mr. Louis Paul Motaze, Minister of Finance, Cameroon
• Mr. Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director, World Bank Group
Discussants:
• Mr. Rémy Rioux, AFD CEO and chairman of the Finance in Common Coalition
• Mr. Jay Collins, Vice Chairman, Citigroup
Background
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 sovereign debt architecture, restructurings are often still inadequate, late and lengthy. A development-oriented debt architecture, based on sound and transparent analysis of sovereign debt sustainability, is urgently needed to address these debt challenges.
The debt chapter of the Sevilla outcome document outlines four areas of actions to address these challenges: i) actions to strengthen debt management and crises prevention, debt transparency, and responsible borrowing and lending; ii) actions to lower borrowing costs and enhance fiscal space for investment in sustainable development in developing countries; iii) actions to achieve efficient, fair, predictable, coordinated, timely, and orderly restructurings; and iv) actions to promote debt sustainability and credit assessments that are more accurate, objective and long-term oriented.
Guiding Questions
1. What are your plans for taking forward the actions in the Sevilla outcome to achieve a development-oriented sovereign debt architecture?
2. How do you intend to progress in improving debt restructuring processes and outcomes in the near and long term for countries with unsustainable debt burdens?
3. How will you work towards advancing the Sevilla outcome to prevent future debt crises and provide urgent, timely and effective support to countries when they are faced with liquidity pressures?
Programme for 1st July, 2025
FFD4 Third Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Fourth Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 2: “Leveraging private business and finance”
Co-Chairs:
• H.E. Mr. Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue, Pakistan
• H.E. Mr. Christopher MacLennan, Deputy Minister of International Development, Canada
Special address by Head of State and Government:
• H.E. Mr. Luis Arce Catacora, President of Bolivia (tbc)
Keynote:
• Mr. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, African Union Commission Chairperson (tbc)
Moderator:
Mr. Courtney Rattray, Under-Secretary-General and Chef de Cabinet, United Nations
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. Mehmet Simsek, Minister of Finance, Türkiye
• H.E. Ms. Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, Austria
• H.E. Ms. Retselisitsoe Matlanyane, Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Lesotho
• H.E. Mr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zambia
Discussants:
• Mr. Boris Titov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Relations with International Organizations for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Russian Federation
• Mr. Odile Renaud-Basso, President, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 3
Background
Private business activity, investment, and innovation are significant drivers of sustainable development in the past decades. However, private sector dynamism slowed after the 2008 world financial and economic crisis, in parallel with the broader macroeconomic slowdown, which also led to a widening Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) investment gap. Annual investment growth in developing countries halved from 8% to 4% between 2007 and 2020. Many countries and sectors that need it the most continue to receive insufficient investment, particularly Least Developed and other vulnerable countries. Despite increased attention to innovative finance instruments such as blended finance and the growing adoption of sustainable business and finance legislation, investment in sustainable development have fallen short of expectations.
The Sevilla outcome document outlines actions aimed at addressing key barriers to unlocking private business and finance at scale in support of sustainable development, including: i) strengthening domestic financial and capital markets in developing countries, building enabling environments for sustainable development, building capacities for diversification and industrialization, and enabling greater access to finance for women, marginalized groups, and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises; ii) promoting foreign direct investment in sustainable development, and enhancing countries’ capacities to attract such investments, and scaling up and a new approach to blended finance, aimed at enhancing effectiveness and impact and scaling its use; and iii) setting financial incentives and regulation so that private investment and business activity are aligned with sustainable development, while supporting interoperability across jurisdictions.
Guiding Questions
- Which actions in the Sevilla Commitment are of highest priority so that private business and finance – at national and global level – can be unlocked at scale to support sustainable development, particularly in developing countries?
- What policy actions can strengthen enabling environments to unlock greater private investment in the SDGs and provide incentives to the private sector on sustainable development objectives?
- Which mechanisms can effectively crowd-in private resources for investment in sustainable development, reduce risks of investment in sectors and countries that need it the most and leverage limited public resources?
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 3: “Revitalizing international development cooperation”
Opening remarks:
• H.E. Mr. Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government, Spain
Co-chairs:
• H.E. Mr. KP Sharma Oli, Prime Minister of Nepal
• H.E. Mr. Paulo Rangel, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Portugal
Special address by Head of State and Government:
• H.E. Mr. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa
Keynote:
• H.E. Mr. Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland
Moderator: Mr. Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator, UNDP (tbc)
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. Ho Duc Phoc, Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
• H.E. Mr. Jozef Síkela, Commissioner of International Partnership, European Commission
• H.E. Ms. Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Iceland
• H.E. Mr. Henry-Claude Oyima, Minister of State, Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Debt, Gabon
Discussants:
• Mr. Ilan Goldfajn, President, Inter-American Development Bank
• Mr. Liqun Jin, President, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Background
International development cooperation represents a critical source of financing and support for sustainable development in many developing countries. However, rapidly rising demands coupled with recent shifts and reductions in ODA are putting scarce resources under increasing stress. Growing fragmentation is also increasing transaction costs and runs counter to long-standing effectiveness principles. There is an urgent need for the entire development cooperation ecosystem to work better as a system with a focus on poverty eradication and on catalysing other sources of finance, both public and private, for long term sustainable development outcomes in developing countries.
The Sevilla outcome document outlines actions aimed at enhancing the quantity and quality of all forms of development cooperation, including Official Development Assistance (ODA), South-South cooperation (SSC) and triangular cooperation, lending from Multilateral Development Banks (MDB), as well as climate finance. It lays out specific actions that all actors will take to enhance effectiveness and impact of development cooperation, as well as a vision for a revitalized international development cooperation architecture both nationally – based on country leadership, and globally – making the most of the central role of the United Nations in strengthening dialogue, knowledge sharing, coherence and accountability among all relevant actors.
Guiding Questions
- What development cooperation actions and commitments in the Sevilla outcome are of highest priority from your perspective, and how will you advance their implementation?
- What needs to change in the design and delivery of development cooperation policies and projects to more effectively respond to the needs and priorities of developing countries, and contribute to long-lasting impact?
- What kind of dialogue and accountability mechanisms are needed at the global level to advance the actions and commitments on development cooperation in the outcome document? How best should we foster such dialogue?
Programme for 30th June, 2025
FFD4 Second Plenary Meeting
- General debate: Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation
FFD4 Multi-stakeholder round table 1: “Mobilizing and aligning domestic public resources”
Co-Chairs:
• H.E. Mr. Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia
• H.E. Mr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone
Special address by Head of State and Government:
• H.E. Ms. Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados Keynote:
• H.E. Daniel Noboa Azin, President of Republic of Ecuador
Moderator:
Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, Director-General, ILO (tbc)
Panelists:
• H.E. Mr. José Manuel Albares Bueno, Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Spain
• H.E. Ms. Reem Alabali Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
• H.E. Mr. Cheikh Diba, Minister of Finance and Budget, Senegal
• Mr. Nigel Clarke, Deputy Managing Director, IMF
Discussants:
• Mr. Masato Kanda, President, Asian Development Bank
• Ms. Nadia Calvino, President, European Investment Bank
Background
Domestic public resources are a cornerstone of sustainable development, providing fiscal space for government spending and investment, 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 public institutions (such as development finance institutions) can hamper resource mobilization and effective use. In a globalized and digitalized economy, international tax cooperation is critical to combat tax evasion and avoidance. Yet, international tax cooperation is neither fully inclusive nor effective. And persistent challenges hinder effective combatting of illicit financial flows.
The Sevilla outcome document addresses these challenges with concrete actions in four areas: i) ensuring that countries have the necessary resources, and that resources are collected efficiently and spent transparently in alignment with sustainable development; ii) strengthening international tax cooperation to ensure that international tax rules respond to the diverse needs, priorities, and capacities of all countries, especially developing countries; iii) effectively combating illicit financial flows; and iv) fully leveraging the potential of national public development banks.
Guiding Questions
1. Which actions and commitments related to domestic public resources in the Sevilla outcome do you consider most urgent, and how do you plan to support their implementation?
2. What changes are needed to strengthen fiscal transparency, align tax and spending policies with sustainable development, enhance institutional capacity and fully leveraging national public development banks in developing countries?
3. What changes are needed to strengthen international tax cooperation and effectively combat illicit financial flows?
FFD4 Opening Segment and First Plenary Meeting
- Opening of the Conference
- Election of the President
- Opening statements by:
- Pedro Sánchez, President of the Conference and the Government of Spain
- António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
- Philemon Yang, President of the United Nations General Assembly
- Bob Rae, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council
- Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group
- Nigel Clarke, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization
- Li Junhua, Secretary-General of the Conference
- Adoption of the rules of procedure
- Adoption of the agenda
- Election of officers other than the President
- Organization of work and other organizational matters
- Credentials of representatives to the Conference: appointment of the members of the Credentials Committee
- General debate
- Statements by Heads of State or Government, ministers and heads of delegation