Finance for Development (FfD)

South Centre Statement at 2nd PrepCom for FfD4, 3-6 December 2024

General Statement at the 2nd Preparatory Committee for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development

New York, 3-6 December 2024

At the 2nd Preparatory Committee for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, South Centre emphasised the important opportunity FfD4 presents for developing countries to address significant shortfalls in resource mobilization necessary to implement SDGs & to reform the international financial architecture to align with Southern priorities.

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Policy Brief 133, 2 December 2024

South Centre Inputs to FfD4 Elements Paper – Debt Sustainability, Business and Finance, Taxation

By Yuefen Li, Danish, Abdul Muheet Chowdhary

The upcoming 4th conference on financing for development (FfD4) represents an important opportunity for developing countries to achieve a deep reform of the international financial architecture so that it meets their sustainable development needs and enhances the scale of development finance to fully realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on the inputs provided by the South Centre to the FfD4 process, this policy brief highlights some of the key messages, problem statements and policy solutions in the areas of sovereign debt, private business and finance, and international tax cooperation that should be considered by the countries of the global South in their deliberations towards achieving ambitious outcomes at FfD4.

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SouthViews No. 278, 27 November 2024

Undue High Expectations of the G20 Common Framework: Urgent Need to Reform the International Debt Architecture

By Yuefen Li

This article stresses how international debt architecture reform requires innovative solutions beyond the G20 Common Framework, and should be addressed at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development.

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South Centre Statement to G-24, 21 October 2024

STATEMENT BY DR. CARLOS CORREA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SOUTH CENTRE, TO THE MINISTERS AND GOVERNORS MEETING OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL GROUP OF TWENTY-FOUR (G-24)

21 October 2024, Washington D.C.

The South Centre participated in the G-24 Annual Meeting of Ministers and Governors in Washington D.C. See our statement:

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South Centre Annual Report 2023

South Centre Annual Report 2023

The South Centre carries out multiple activities to support developing countries with policy-oriented research, inputs and advice for negotiations and capacity building. See a summary of the South Centre’s activities in the Annual Report 2023.

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SC Submission to the Global Digital Compact, April 2023

Submission to the Global Digital Compact

Apply Human Rights Online

 South Centre

 Geneva, April 2023

The South Centre’s Board approved in September 2022 its Programme of Work 2023-2025 where the policy dimensions of digital transformation are highlighted as one of the priority areas for developing countries, including the need to harness digital technologies in education, health and the production of goods and services, support the development of a domestic digital industry, improve their digital infrastructure, advance digital equity and inclusion, effectively tax the digital companies and contribute to shaping the digital governance architecture to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Following the call made in the Declaration on the Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations (A/RES/75/1) for improved digital cooperation, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and his report ‘Our Common Future’, the South Centre submits the following written contribution to the UN Secretary General ahead to the Summit of the Future with the objective of providing support to developing countries in the intergovernmental process concerning the digital transformation.

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South Centre Semester Report, January-June 2021

South Centre Semester Report, January – June 2021

This Semester Report summarizes the activities undertaken by the South Centre during the period 1st January to 30 June 2021. It is intended to provide information, organized by themes, about recent developments in the areas covered by the Centre’s Work Program, meetings organized or co-organized by the Centre to examine particular issues or provide analytical support for negotiations taking place in various international fora, and conferences and other meetings where the Centre has participated. It also informs about publications of the outcomes of internal policy-oriented research and external contributions made as a result of cooperation with the Centre.

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Policy Brief 95, June 2021

Systemic reform of the international debt architecture is yet to start

By Yuefen Li

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the reform of the international debt architecture to the policy agenda. Up to now policy measures to address the crushing debt burden of developing countries have focused on boosting time bound liquidity provision, which is insufficient in amount and restrictive in scope as debt-ridden and pandemic struck middle-income countries have not been covered.  Even the implementation of these policy measures has been hindered by existing systemic problems. The reform of the debt architecture is yet to start. However, complacency seems to emerge. The risk of “wasting” the crisis should be avoided.

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Submission on on Challenges and Measures to Prevent and Combat Corruption and Strengthen International Cooperation, June 2021

Submission to the Special Session of the General Assembly on Challenges and Measures to Prevent and Combat Corruption and Strengthen International Cooperation

South Centre, 28 May 2021

The South Centre submission to UNGASS2021 highlights the need for strong inter-institutional and cross-sectorial coordination and more effective and open government tools.  The UNGASS2021 should support the implementation of the FACTI Panel recommendations as means to enhance States’ effort to combat corruption. 

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SouthViews No. 217, 14 May 2021

Financing for development from the perspective of the right to development

 Summaries of two reports by Saad Alfarargi, Special Rapporteur on the right to development

In 2020, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Saad Alfarargi, submitted two reports, one to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and the other to the UN General Assembly, on the issue of financing for development (FFD) from the perspective of the right to development (RTD). The first report (A/HRC/45/15) analyzed national-level FFD, while the second report (A/75/167) focused on the international dimension of FFD. In both reports the Special Rapporteur highlighted relevant challenges, with a particular focus on how to ensure the meaningful participation of rights-holders.

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Statement, October 2020

South Centre Statement to the Ministers and Governors Meeting of The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four (G24)

At the G-24 spring meeting, an important part of the discussion was about how COVID-19 could result in a setback to the fragile recovery of the world economy from the global financial crisis. Six months later, the current international discussions are about how long the pandemic will remain unchecked and how deep the world economic recession will be. Developing countries are licking their wounds and alarmed at the big financing gap between their plummeted fiscal revenue and skyrocketing financing needs for the pandemic response. The situation is dire. The world has passed the tragic milestone of losing one million lives to the pandemic. Some of the hard-won achievements made in implementing the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been reversed. Poverty and hunger will increase for the first time since the 1990s, the number of people facing starvation may double, gender and income inequality has been further widened as a result of the pandemic.

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South Centre Semester Report, January-June 2020

South Centre Semester Report, 1 January to 30 June 2020

This Semester Report summarizes the activities undertaken by the South Centre during the period 1st January to 30 June 2020. It is intended to provide information, organized by themes, about recent developments in the areas covered by the Centre’s Work Program, meetings organized or co-organized by the Centre to examine particular issues or provide analytical support for negotiations taking place in various international fora, and conferences and other meetings where the Centre has participated. It also informs about publications made.

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