Presented by International Monetary Fund
Three months after the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, or FfD4, in Seville, Spain, the international community arrived in New York City to show that multilateralism remains alive, adaptable, and increasingly plurilateral — even as the United States goes its own way.
Last week at the 80th United Nations General Assembly, global leaders gathered for the first Biennial Summit for a Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Global Economy, a new high-level forum designed to rethink the international financial system on the road to achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
“I called for this summit because 21st-century challenges require 21st-century solutions: frameworks that are networked and inclusive and that draw on the expertise of all of humanity,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva urged countries to put debt on a sustainable path as global public debt approaches 100% of gross domestic product. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed for faster debt relief, fairer financing, and tax reforms to close the $4 trillion SDG financing gap, and WTO head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighted trade’s “remarkable resilience” despite global tensions.
The summit was a follow-up to Seville, where more than 190 member states formally adopted the Sevilla Commitment; came to a consensus on commitments on debt, tax reform, and climate finance; and launched over 130 voluntary initiatives through the Seville Platform for Action.
The U.S. absence from FfD4 left a symbolic void, but it also created space for others — particularly global south groups and regional institutions — to step into leadership roles.
At UNGA80, those Seville threads converged again under themes of reform, collective action, and resilience — as well as a general divide between the U.S. and everyone else. The U.N.’s 80th annual gathering became a crucible for redefining its purpose and function — notably via the UN80 Initiative, which proposes streamlining mandates and enhancing operational efficiency.
While the U.S. stuck to its course, Chinese Premier Li Qiang used his address to the General Assembly to reaffirm Beijing’s commitment to multilateralism and implicitly reject protectionist or unilateral approaches. Likewise, a broad chorus of nations from France to South Africa rallied behind U.N. calls for joint responses to conflict, climate, and inequality — even as the U.S. continued to champion an “America First” focus.
Read a special edition of our daily Newswire: The many questions that remain after UNGA80
Background reading: The key takeaways from four days in Sevilla
+ Check out our UNGA80 focus page for all coverage of the General Assembly.
Investors are also pushing against some of the U.S. rhetoric against investing in renewables. During a busy evening last week, John Denton, the secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce — which champions the needs of business in global policymaking — told me that the organization’s job is to “put order into disorder.” To do that, it is pushing for reforms from aligning trade finance with sustainability to creating “safe harbors” for companies using voluntary carbon markets. Pension funds, seen as the prime example of patient capital, will require clearer rules and de-risking mechanisms — in other words, a sense of order — before they move in.
Denton said that the clear long-term trend is the transition to sustainable energy. He said that 8 out of 10 institutional investors continue to back opportunities in the space — but unlocking private capital for emerging economies remains a challenge, in part due to outdated risk frameworks that inflate the cost of investment.
The stakes are high. Denton said that he thinks fixing technical barriers in financial stability rules could unlock up to four times more climate finance.
Turning countries’ climate plans into bankable projects is the challenge of the moment. U.N. Development Programme’s sustainable finance hub director, Tom Beloe, spent most of last week running across Midtown Manhattan, speaking with policy experts on one hand and private finance leaders on the other.
“We’ve got to make [nationally determined contributions] investable, because if they’re not investable, we’re not going to get the transactions that we want at the scale we want, and governments aren’t going to make the progress they need to make,” he said. NDCs are countries’ plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The power, he said, lies in the hands of finance ministries, which must translate climate policy into investment-ready frameworks. “Ministries of environment do not speak the language of finance, and ministries of finance need to help ministries of environment translate policy of NDCs into the language of finance in investment plans for the private sector,” he said.
Insurance and blended finance are also key to scaling investment in low- and middle-income countries, he added. With less than 5% of Africa’s population covered by insurance, it is “a way of reducing risk which enables investment to flow, domestic or international.”
ICYMI: All eyes on missing NDCs as Climate Week and UNGA converge
Related: Will climate insurance save us or fail us? (Pro)
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The convergence of UNGA and Climate Week meant New York City was ripe for public-private dealmaking. Here are a few that caught my eye:
• FinDev Canada, International Finance Corporation, and Japan International Cooperation Agency announced that they are investing $415 million in Banco Industrial, Guatemala’s largest bank, to support climate-smart agriculture, green buildings, and SME growth. FinDev Canada’s $75 million contribution is fully dedicated to climate finance, helping mitigate risks from floods, hurricanes, and other climate impacts while boosting local jobs and economic resilience. The deal marks FinDev Canada’s first transaction in Guatemala and underscores the role of development finance institutions in turning climate and development goals into investable projects.
• The Inter-American Development Bank launched the ReInvest+ initiative, aiming to mobilize up to $500 billion in Latin American local loans for global institutional investment. The goal is to transform these local bank loans into investment-grade, hard-currency securities by adding protections against political and currency risk, thereby attracting private capital to bridge the $1.3 trillion annual climate financing gap in low- and middle-income countries.
• The African Development Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero launched a new partnership to mobilize private investment across the African continent, targeting job creation, innovation, and sustainable growth. It aims to reduce barriers to private finance and leverage Africa’s investment opportunities, with a focus on women, youth, and high-impact development projects.
Just west of the U.N. headquarters in New York, development professionals joined us at Devex Impact House, where the intersection of public and private finance was a hot topic. In one session, panelists emphasized that unlocking private capital — particularly in fragile and low-income markets — hinges on better alignment between public, philanthropic, and private players. They also pointed to the need to think about not only how to unlock this capital, but how to keep it consistent and trustworthy.
As the global development industry and how to finance its work evolves, the focus “is going to have to be much more around growth and around sustainability and around countries being in a position to attract much more in the way of different types of capital,” said Alice Albright, the former CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Read: What will it take to unlock private financing in a changing era?
A new report by Malaria No More and the Corporate Council on Africa is making the case that malaria control isn’t just a health imperative — it’s a smart investment. The study estimates that every $1 the U.S. spends on African malaria control yields $5.80 in economic growth, with $126.9 billion in untapped GDP at stake. Released last week, the report argues malaria is a “tax” on African economies that costs $12 billion annually and disrupts U.S. business interests on the continent.
Malaria No More CEO Martin Edlund said the issue is “just as important, for example, as investing in roads and ports,” while CCA’s Florizelle Liser notes that health security is increasingly factored into investment decisions. Their findings land as the U.S. rolls out its new “America First Global Health Strategy,” which emphasizes partnerships, coinvestments, and advancing U.S.-made health products. With Africa projected to account for 1 in 4 people globally by 2050, advocates say malaria elimination could become one of the continent’s biggest economic multipliers — and a competitive edge for U.S. businesses.
Read: Why beating malaria is smart business for America
See also: Trump administration releases long-awaited global health strategy
As shrinking aid budgets leave 251 million children out of school, the International Finance Facility for Education, or IFFEd, which has officially launched, is aiming to turn $1 of donor support into $7 of education project finance. The Switzerland-based facility is backed by donors including Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. It partners with MDBs such as the Asian Development Bank — and soon the World Bank — to finance initiatives in lower-middle-income countries, from early childhood development to skills training. IFFEd CEO Karthik Krishnan calls it a “moonshot” for education finance, combining concessional loans, guarantees, and grant funding to make borrowing for education cheaper and more attractive — all while driving measurable learning outcomes.
Read: ‘Moonshot’ education finance facility aims to turn $1 into $7 in LMICs
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A global database on emerging market debt statistics created by development banks aims to use AI analytics to better assess risk and attract more private capital to developing markets. [Reuters]
The European Commission has launched a €545 million initiative to expand electrification, modernize power grids, and fund renewable energy projects across nine African countries, with the program expected to create up to 38 million green jobs by 2030. [Business Insider Africa]
Opinion: The World Bank must follow through on promises to put citizens and civil society at the center of its work, ensuring meaningful engagement, accountability, and funding mechanisms like the CIVIC facility. [Global Policy Journal]