4th International Conference on Financing for Development: Realizing a Borrowers’ Forum – press conference

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let me begin with a fundamental question.

What does it mean to have a voice in the global financial system?

Voice is not simply the ability to speak.

Voice is the capacity to shape outcomes, to negotiate from strength and to transform individual vulnerabilities into collective resilience.

The expert group on debt warns of a silent debt crisis.

Today, 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt services than on health or education.

3.4 billion people.

These countries paid around 920 billion dollars in debt service last year alone.

Yet in every major forum where debt solutions are negotiated, borrower countries sit across from a united front of creditors, while they themselves remain negotiating alone.

This asymmetry is not inevitable.

It is a choice, and today we are here to make a different choice.

The Compromiso de Sevilla, in its clause 48 (i) recognizes, and I read, “the commitment, the imperative to support the establishment of borrower-led forums that enable countries to share experiences, strategies and good practices, and to promote responsible borrowing and lending standards”.

This is an extremely important outcome of the Compromiso de Sevilla – one we must celebrate and pursue.

So my fellows will refer to this.

So let me share with you some points to discuss and follow for the operationalization of the forum that was included in Annex 1 of the expert group report.

• Create a knowledge repository, a South-South learning platform, where countries share real experiences.
• Promote responsible practices, establishing common principles for sovereign borrowing and lending.
• Amplify your voice, ensuring borrower countries have real weight in negotiations, making sure their numbers add up.
• Provide technical assistance for legal financial strategic advisory service on innovative instruments.
• Strengthen debt management, partnering with existing programs to build capacity.

And if we can do this, we can really make a difference.

We also have to be aware of why former initiatives have struggled.

We have learned from them.

And so here the important thing is that countries will lead this exercise and that we will partner with other entities to make it real.

So this is a critical recommendation from the 11 actions identified by the expert group to unlock sustainable finance.

And I think that the Compromiso de Sevilla is clear, and we are here to support it and to operationalize it as needed with the consultation and the leadership of the countries and the partners.

Thank you very much.