Sevilla reporter's notebook Day 3: Hitting a stride or hitting a wall?

Day 3 felt more hopeful than expected, with some delegates telling us “the document is good!” and “the people are happy!” and “I came into this very pessimistic, and am pleasantly surprised.” Multilateralism feels alive and well at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, according to world leaders. And delegates seem to be coming to the table ready to work towards concrete solutions. Journalists, on the other hand, are not feeling like we’ve found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Whoever designed the media room definitely had high expectations for how many journalists would show up. The room, which could fit at least four soccer fields, is largely empty. We don’t blame the journalists who opted out, though — we are still being forced to find chaperones to take us into the area of the conference where delegates negotiate. Fortunately, we found a way around the security checkpoints. We managed to sit down for chats with some of the conference's biggest voices: André do Lago, the Brazilian COP30 president; Steven Collet, the deputy minister of foreign affairs for the Netherlands; Marisa Drew, the chief sustainability officer of Standard Chartered Bank; and Marcos Neto, United Nations’ assistant secretary-general and director of U.N. Development Programme’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. These leaders and others let us know how they were feeling on Day 3 of four — and as the day came to a close, that mix of pessimism and optimism was brought to the fore. Borrowers’ club, explained Debt — and what to do about it — has become the defining topic at FfD4. For months, civil society organizations have been pushing for a multilateral framework to help countries deal with debt — and while that didn’t make it into the outcome document, one of the most anticipated solutions brought by delegates is the creation of a borrowers’ club. It’s meant to serve as a platform for borrowing countries to discuss technical issues, share information, and elevate their experiences. “This is an extremely important outcome of the Compromiso de Sevilla, one we must celebrate and pursue,” said Rebeca Grynspan, U.N. Trade and Development secretary-general, in a press briefing on Wednesday. Grynspan explained how the platform will work: There will be a knowledge repository, which will come in the form of a “south-south learning platform” where countries can share their experiences and establish common, responsible borrowing principles. The platform will also provide technical assistance, she said, and strengthen countries’ ability to manage their debt through advisory services. “To have this as a platform to complement what different institutions are [already] doing, I think is going to be a win-win situation for both the creditors and the debtors,” said Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s minister of planning, economic development, and international cooperation, at the briefing. Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, is feeling especially optimistic about debt. He told us that there’s been a “redoubling of the commitment on debt” and specifically pointed to the addition of pause clauses. These clauses allow a country to pause repayments on debt while going through a crisis. This is already being done in a few small island states — Barbados and St. Kitts and Nevis, for example. The outcome document has standardized their usage to make them a “normal feature of debt,” said Persaud. “To make them universal.” (I think I even sensed a hopeful glint in his eye.) Persaud said that this change has the potential to transform the international financial architecture by giving low- and middle-income countries the flexibility — and breathing space — they need. Pocket change for climate? Climate, a big topic of discussion at the preparatory meetings for the outcome document, is another major theme across the conference. There's a push among negotiators to say that FfD4 is not the place to discuss climate change — that’s for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to deal with, Neto of UNDP told us. But we’re seeing delegates and representatives tie climate to other aspects of the debate, specifically empowering local leadership. “Africa’s future cannot be framed through vulnerability," said Aminata Touré, former prime minister of Senegal, during a panel on Wednesday. “I think it’s important that we refuse this victimization vision of Africa. Because it is not true.” She said the “foundation of climate-resilient development is already being built” within local communities. “It’s important that these initiatives be led locally,” she said. “What remains uncertain is whether the global financial system will support this momentum or constrain it.” The Sevilla outcome document was clear on its support for locally-led development, dedicating a paragraph to subnational finance, encouraging local currency lending from MDBs, and mentioning “local ownership” as a key tenant of successful development. “This document truly consolidates the notion of country ownership,” said Neto. “There was a genesis of that notion out of Addis Ababa [at FfD3]; now it’s smack in the middle. Sevilla is about transferring that responsibility and ownership to each country and then finding private sector, U.N., MDBs, and others to come in solidarity with what they want.” So, low- and middle-income countries want wealthier countries to take the lead on their development. And high-income countries want the same. But dissonance remains around how to finance it. Between 2021 and 2022, only 3.3% of global climate finance reached the African continent. Touré said that despite the fact that her country wants to develop using clean energy, “a country like Senegal can produce oil and gas, and we are going to exploit it because we need development to give light to our populations and to power our industries, unless alternative solutions are offered to us.” Meanwhile, Brazil is here trying to rally support for a successful U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP30, later in November. Do Lago, the Brazilian COP30 president, wouldn’t go into detail on their prized initiative, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, but bringing it up does seem to be the best way to make a COP30 leader happy. The initiative is meant to allocate funds to countries that conserve or restore their forests. Brazil is expected to fully launch it in November, but so far, no funds have been allocated. Do Lago was optimistic, but did not say where he expected the money to come from. “We are negotiating at the moment, and as you know, we have to be discreet about these, so we have not yet announced who the first donors will be. But we’re getting there.” Boiling point Despite that progress, it hasn’t been an easy week for civil society — and not just because they say delegates didn’t get as far as they should have on debt relief, cancellation, and restructuring. Throughout the first two days, conference security discarded items with political messages printed on them, several civil society representatives told us, noting that some of the tossed items included fans that said “tax the rich” or “cancel debt.” That messaging was one of several ways the civil society network associated with FfD — called Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism — had been trying to push for more ambition from delegates, said Tove Maria Ryding, a policy and advocacy manager at Eurodad. On Wednesday, the group assembled a press briefing to do that — but conference security moved the event from one room to another and then back. And when we tried to enter that room, a security guard told us the press were not permitted to do so, allowing us to join the briefing only after a member of the civil society network overheard and argued for it. “Europe says they are the leaders of democracy, and we’re not seeing any example of that,” Ryding told us after the briefing. “This is one of the worst examples — if not the worst example — that we’ve seen. We have not been able to work all week, we have not been able to get our message across.” So, what was that message? Once we were finally able to enter the room, we found out: They were disappointed by the outcome document, with Jason Rosario Braganza, the executive director of AFRODAD, stating that wealthy countries “systematically tried to undermine” proposals from African countries, especially when it came to debt relief. “The Compromiso de Sevilla was supposed to provide us with a platform and an opportunity to comprehensively reform the global debt architecture,” said Braganza. “What we’ve gotten is a much watered-down proposal and a set of ideas through this negotiating process.” “We are told there's no money to fight poverty or climate change — but there is,” echoed Ryding. “The problem is economic injustice. And the outcome of this conference reflects business as usual.” Speaking the right language Other segments of the FfD4 crowd are feeling more optimistic — especially those that for years have been pushing the type of development that’s all the rage at FfD: programs backed by blended finance. “There is a different appetite now that USAID is no longer here to de-risk some of the investments that may have been happening around the world,” said Lisa Kurbiel, the head of the Joint SDG Fund, a U.N. fund that helps countries design and finance solutions to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. “But I still think there is an appetite. We just have to speak the right language, and to translate what we do in a way that turns poverty reduction into an asset class.” One example, Kurbiel explained, is the Renewable Energy Fund in Zimbabwe, a blended finance fund managed by the African financial group Old Mutual and guided by several U.N. agencies. Through a blended finance approach, those behind the project expect the fund to grow from $6 million to $50 million in three years, ultimately supporting off-grid solar, mini-grids, and other products with a bankable return. “I think that’s the kind of leverage that’s expected of this conference, and it’s obviously the kind of leverage that’s needed in 2025 — when [official development assistance] is debilitated, or destroyed, or never coming back,” she added. “It’s something we believe is very possible if we meet the right people, and socialize this in the right ways.” Thinking outside the box Kurbiel is far from alone. Álvaro Lario, the president of the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, is thinking through the same — and despite funding for his agency being zeroed out in President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request, Lario seemed hopeful about IFAD’s future. “We are doubling down with the national development banks, with the multilateral development banks, to make sure that the co-financing and financing is channeling to our first mile: where poverty is located in the rural areas,” he told us. “I think it’s important where at a moment where many governments in least developed countries do not have many choices — because they are paying a lot of tax revenues into the interest of their debt — we have to find ways that whatever the overall amount is, we manage to catalyze other actors [to contribute more toward development],” he added. During the first Trump administration, Lario said, IFAD’s support was also eliminated, but the agency regained funding once that budget request went through Congress. Regardless, IFAD doesn’t seem to be waiting for things to reverse course: On Wednesday, IFAD and the European Union launched a €4.26 million project called Resilient Remit, which aims to boost remittances and diaspora investment for climate resilience in Honduras, Pakistan, and Senegal. It’s one of dozens of initiatives launched or promoted at FfD4 that are trying to tap into development beyond ODA, such as the World Health Organization’s 3 by 35 initiative — a push to increase countries to raise the prices of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by 50% in 10 years, and implement health taxes to do so. Almost there Day 4, the final day, is tomorrow. Don’t expect too much — this conference isn’t about outcomes. But perhaps the mood will continue to rise.