Global Leaders Unite to Champion Global Public Investment to Tackle Common Global Challenges

As the world prepares for the upcoming Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla, Spain (30^th June to 4^th July), a coalition of global leaders from governments and civil society has come together to advance progress on global public investment – a bold approach to financing that pools resources and shares decision-making to tackle today’s most pressing global challenges.

A new multistakeholder commitment to advance the implementation of global public investment will be a key initiative in the financing conference’s flagship Sevilla Platform for Action. The initiative, led by the Global Public Investment Network, in partnership with Club de Madrid, Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and the Government of Colombia, will be formally launched on 3^rd July at 8.30am in the conference’s SPA Initiative Room. The launch will also be previewed at a major side event at the conference on Strengthening Principles for Global Cooperation, on 2^nd July at 12.30pm in Side Event Room 19.

At this time of fiscal stress, geopolitical tension, and public anxiety, a revitalisation of public financing and of multilateralism is vital. Advocates argue that the scale and urgency of global threats – such as pandemics, disasters, and climate change – and of opportunities – like medical advancements and energy transitions – necessitate strengthened collaboration. “Some challenges are too big for any one country to tackle alone, and too important to allow a few countries to define the response,” says María Elena Agüero, Secretary General of Club de Madrid.

Global public investment is rooted in three principles:

• all benefit from the outcomes;
• all contribute according to their means;
• all decide together.

Supporters of global public investment are clear: it is not charity, it is collective self-interest. Contributions would be scaled according to each country’s means – similar to the principle of how national tax systems fund shared services. From this pooled investment, all nations would benefit.

Momentum in support of global public investment has been fast accelerating. More than fifty civil society organisations have endorsed global public investment as an approach, including the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, Southern Voice, Civicus, and Global Citizen.

Renowned thinkers such as Mariana Mazzucato, Winnie Byanyima, Jayati Ghosh, and Thomas Piketty have declared their support for global public investment.

As chair of the G20, South Africa has made global public investment the development working group’s “priority number one”.

The launch of the initiative on global public investment as part of the Sevilla Platform for Action further boosts the progress that is being made in turning global public investment from a good idea to an agreed plan for implementation.

“These leaders are showing the way,” says Global Public Investment Network Executive Director Harpinder Collacott. “As more leaders commit to this cause, global public investment will change lives and light the way to solving shared global challenges.”

In an op-ed published ahead of the Sevilla conference, José Antonio Ocampo, former Minister of Finance of Colombia, and Advisor to Club de Madrid, writes: “For the challenges we face, building a new international architecture based around global public investment is both necessary and feasible. It is an approach whose time has come. Sevilla is just the start.”