SG Report: International financial system and development

The present report was prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 78/136, entitled “International financial system and development”. The report provides an overview of current and emerging challenges for the international financial system in providing long-term financing for sustainable development in the context of a rapidly growing financing gap. Against a backdrop of escalating global risks, the report calls for urgent action to rapidly accelerate the pace and scale of reforms in the international financial system and architecture and to increase investments in the Sustainable Development Goals at an unprecedented scale. Priority actions to achieve those aims include a strengthening of the global financial safety net; bold measures to scale up multilateral development bank finance, including early consideration of replenishments and capital increases, efforts to raise new capital and the rechannelling of special drawing rights; the strengthening of debt crisis prevention and establishment of a more effective debt crisis resolution mechanism; efforts to advance progress on the regulatory agenda to create financial markets that are accessible, stable and sustainable; and efforts to enhance the voice and representation of developing countries in global economic governance. The report points to the Summit of the Future, to be held in September 2024, and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in June 2025, as important venues for discussions on such reform.