Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
We meet at a moment of profound challenge in international development cooperation. The foundation of global solidarity is under strain. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is shrinking. Some of the leading ODA contributors are retreating from their commitments. Critical humanitarian and development programmes are disrupted.
Nearly 600 million people could still be living in extreme poverty by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals are off track. Meanwhile, international capital is fleeing developing economies, crippling their capacities to finance basic infrastructure and essential services -- let alone a just energy transition.
The result? A spiralling crisis where debt service devours public budgets in developing countries, depleting investments desperately needed for sustainable development.
Country programmable aid ¨C key to supporting national priorities -- has fallen below half of total ODA.
Climate finance, vital for our planet¡¯s survival, remains a small fraction of the required 1.3 trillion US dollars annually.
Too many countries are burdened with unsustainable debt, shrinking fiscal space, and a fragmented development system that does not align with urgent needs and priorities.
In this dysfunctional system, women and girls bear the heaviest burden, facing disproportionate impacts that threaten to erase decades of hard-won progress on gender equality.
This trajectory is unsustainable. A major paradigm shift is needed.
Please allow me to share a few points for action:
First, prioritize the most vulnerable. We should forge genuine partnerships that deliver predictable, sustained support to the most vulnerable. Grants have hit a 20-year low, while middle-income countries get the bulk of finance. We must act proactively to prevent the next crisis.
Second, simplify and streamline. Development cooperation must rebuild trust by empowering countries to lead, aligning with their national plans and platforms, and focusing on concrete results with sustained impact.
Third, respect national ownership. Developing countries are burdened with navigating complex challenges. Development cooperation must not impose parallel systems, but leverage countries¡¯ national systems already in place.
Fourth, strengthen domestic resource mobilization and address the obstacles that developing countries face in doing so. A coherent approach to international development cooperation also requires support for a fairer global tax system, robust international action against illicit financial flows, and comprehensive reforms to multilateral financial institutions.
Fifth, modernize the global development architecture. We need strengthened UN and regional platforms to ensure alignment with national needs and priorities, and to foster greater coherence and effectiveness. South-South and triangular cooperation, regional development banks, and innovative financing models must be integrated into our global approach.
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
We must seize the opportunity presented by this 2025 DCF, injecting new dynamism, to inform other milestone events in the coming months.
I am counting on each of you to bring forward ambitions and actionable recommendations to fulfil promises with solutions.
Learn from both each other¡¯s successes and failures as diverse actors and stakeholders in development cooperation.
Together, let¡¯s find common ground where progress is needed, and achievable.
The world¡¯s most vulnerable -- those living in poverty and at risk, cannot afford further delay.
Let us act with the urgency, foresight and solidarity this moment demands.
Development cooperation must be smarter, more effective, and rooted in country leadership.
Let us rise to this moment and create a future where no one is left behind.
Thank you.