Pedro Sánchez, at Global Citizen NOW: "The Seville Conference is an opportunity to show that we are still fighting for a better world"

Seville

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the "Global Citizen NOW" event (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has called for determined and united action to achieve important advances in financing for development and to boost confidence in the multilateral system. He called for this during his speech at the inauguration of "Global Citizen NOW Seville: Financing Our Future", an event prior to the 4th UN International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) to be held in Seville from 30 June to 3 July.

This Sunday's event, aimed at mobilising global civil society to make international commitments to sustainable development, was also attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the CEO of the Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, among other personalities from global politics, business and culture.

In his opening speech, Pedro Sánchez warned of the dangers to sustainable development, such as cuts in official development aid and lack of funding, but then added a message of hope: "Hope that we can end poverty. Hope that we can contain the climate emergency. And hope that we can build fairer societies," he said.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks at the "Global Citizen NOW" event | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Objectives of the Conference

The President of the Government of Spain outlined some of the objectives of the Seville Conference: to address the critical issue of debt relief and give developing countries more control over their financing strategies by proposing initiatives like debt-for-investment swaps and mechanisms to suspend debt payments in the event of natural disasters; to create a fairer tax system, in which large fortunes and companies contribute more; and to ensure that women have better access to financing in order to strengthen their role in sustainable development.

"I am confident that we can achieve these goals. In these times of deep uncertainty and growing geopolitical tension, we must reaffirm our commitment to multilateralism, cooperation and shared responsibility", he stressed. Pedro Sánchez also reiterated Spain's commitment to the objective of allocating 0.7% of GDP to development aid, and called on other countries to achieve this too.

"This Conference is not just another meeting, it is the moment of truth", concluded the President of the Government of Spain. "An opportunity to tell the world that we will not give up and we will not give in. That we will continue to work and fight for a better world".

Non official translation