As the world grapples with the challenges presented by climate change, unprecedented biodiversity loss, chemical and plastic pollution, increasing land degradation, wars and conflicts, supply chain crises, trade wars, and rising waves of political populism, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 seems to be more and more unattainable. The channels of financing these goals seem to be drying up right at the point when the most vulnerable need them the most.

Against this backdrop and under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council, Ministers and high-level officials will meet in a Forum on Financing for Development (FfD) to enhance political momentum towards the Fourth International Conference on FfD (FfD-4), scheduled to be held in Sevilla, Spain, from 30 June - 3 July 2025.

FfD-4 addressed new and emerging issues, and the urgent need to fully implement the SDGs, and support reform of the international financial architecture. It built on the three previous FfD Conference outcome documents, namely the: 2002 Monterrey Consensus; 2008 Doha Declaration; and 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

During the Forum, delegates held a dialogue with senior representatives of the two Bretton Woods institutions: the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Delegates also convened in a special high-level meeting with Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). They also engaged in five ministerial fireside chats on:

• lowering borrowing costs and advancing development-oriented debt solutions;
• revitalizing development cooperation for impact and inclusion;
• mobilizing private investment to drive impact;
• harnessing trade and technology for sustainable development; and
• investing in data to accelerate development.

To prepare for FfD-4, the UN General Assembly convened an intergovernmental Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), which has met three times: in Addis Ababa in July 2024, and at UN Headquarters in New York in December 2024 and February 2025. At PrepCom-3, delegates commented on a zero draft of the FfD-4 outcome document. 

Led by PrepCom Co-Chairs Zéphyrin Maniratanga (Burundi) and Rui Vinha (Portugal), PrepCom 4 continued to negotiate the revised outcome document. Delegates benefitted from intersessional work carried out in March 2025 on the revised document. The meeting offered an opportunity for observers to comment on the revised text.

The ECOSOC FfD Forum convened from 28-29 May 2025, back-to-back with PrepCom-4 (30 April - 1 May 2025) at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin writer for this meeting was Tallash Kantai. The Editor was Pamela Chasek, Ph.D.