SEVILLA, SPAIN – On the closing day of the Fourth Financing for Development Conference, Global Public Investment Network and Club de Madrid announced a new government-led initiative for global public investment at the Sevilla Platform for Action. This marks a bold step toward reshaping how the world finances solutions to shared global challenges.
“This day, and this Financing for Development Conference, does not mark an end point. It does not resolve the global crisis. It marks a starting point: the beginning of an opportunity that can remake and revitalise financing – and multilateralism.” – Harpinder Collacott, Executive Director of the Global Public Investment Network said
“Through this initiative, global public investment has moved from being a concept for discussion to being a policy proposition for governments to develop and agree. This initiative has the potential to help remake how we cooperate to sustain what is essential for people and planet alike. It is urgent, vital, popular, and achievable.” – María Elena Agüero, Secretary General of Club de Madrid said
The scale and urgency of shared global threats – such as pandemics, disasters, and climate change – and of shared global opportunities – like medical advancements and energy transitions – necessitate strengthened collaboration. Global public investment is the mechanism through which the world can succeed in meeting our shared challenges – together.
The core is of global public investment is already clear. It is rooted in three principles:
- all benefit from the outcomes of solving our common global challenges
- all contribute according to their means
- all decide together on priorities and oversight
It is not charity; it is collective self-interest. From this pooled investment, all benefit.
Now, building on years of research and policy development, the government-led initiative being launched today will work to ensure the embedding of global public investment into the international financial architecture by 2028.
The Government of Colombia, the Government of Uruguay, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and Club de Madrid are the pioneer leaders driving the initiative. Their starting of this process has been met with huge excitement from other governments and international institutions, and more and more leaders are readying to join in the coming weeks.
“We are proud to take part in the Sevilla Platform for Action initiative for global public investment. We are taking a vital step toward reshaping the way the world finances development.
It is time for our financial and the development cooperation systems to reflect the lesson learned, time and again, that in an interdependent world, we will fall or rise together. The global public investment approach provides a fair and more equitable alternative.
Everybody gains from sharing responsibility and decision-making. Global public investment means a fairer, more secure world for everyone. A growing movement has championed the idea – now we are working to make it a reality.” – Eleonora Betancur González, Director of the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia said.
“Uruguay is delighted to attend the launch of this initiative. Global public investment has the potential to recalibrate international cooperation. It can steer the world away from entrenched and inequitable power dynamics, towards truly collective participation.
Crucially, global public investment will not only be fairer than the current approaches inherited from the last century, it could be much more successful. Global public investment’s more democratic and accountable way to manage resources will be a win-win for the world.
We cannot overcome global challenges if we retreat into isolation, or compete for domination. We can do so only when countries collaboratively co-create solutions to shared problems. It is time to embed the principles of all decide, all benefit according to need, and all contribute up to their capacity, into the global financial architecture.” – Martin Clavijo, Executive Director of the Agency for International Cooperation of Uruguay said.
“The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean is pleased to be co-convening this transformational new initiative. There are extraordinary opportunities for progress, on areas from public health to clean energy, improving everybody’s life, that the global public investment can help countries achieve.
The development of global public investment is an essential part of bringing international financing up to date.” – Patricio Scaff, Lead Officer, Resource Mobilization and Global Partnerships, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) said.
“The Sevilla Platform for Action on global public investment is a highlight of the Financing for Development Conference. By readying global public investment for implementation by 2028, the task force that will come together this year will be at the heart of remaking international financing to meet the needs of the new era.
Global public investment is central to how we can overcome shared challenges, how we can rebuild multilateralism through inclusion, equality, and respect, and how we can protect the health of everyone.” – Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director and United Nations Under-Secretary-General said.
That today’s launch of the initiative on global public investment is happening on the final day of the Conference is a powerful demonstration that it is as the Conference ends that the most important work to reform international finance starts. The work of the initiative, which is set to culminate three years from now, has gotten underway immediately.
“What these leaders are building for global public investment can become a reality by 2028,” said Ms Collacott. “To secure our shared future, we need shared investment, with shared power. We have the potential to build that, so that history books will look back on today as the day a transformational shift got underway. It is not automatic, it is not certain, it is not given, but it can be won – together.”
