Development Finance: the Start or End of an ‘Era of Justice’

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At the end of June 2025, a beacon of hope for international financial architecture reform will be lit in Sevilla, Spain. World leaders, development experts and civil society activists will come together for the Fourth United Nations International conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). This is the first time that this summit is held on European soil. 

This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity. The global south is facing a deepening debt crisis, aid budgets are being slashed and the Sustainable Development Goals, set shortly after the last FfD summit in 2015, are off track. Civil society sees the June UN conference as a chance for the world, as a whole, to reset the system, reshape the global economic rules that are stacked against the poorest across the globe, and to tackle the deep-seated causes of global instability, including the climate crisis.

The “Financing for Development” campaign will be the first to be launched under the DEAR Project ‘Connecting the Dots’. The Europe-wide campaign will target young people aged 15-30 to raise awareness of FfD4 and inspire them to take action on the core issues. It will be calling for an “Era of Justice”. 

Issues such as international development cooperation, sovereign debt and tax justice were discussed at the International Conference of ‘Connecting the Dots’ lead partner, the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), which took place in Barcelona in January 2025. Over the course of two days, more than 200 experts and activists working on economic justice shared their vision of what is needed for FfD4 to be successful, how local campaigning can influence global agendas, as well as taking time to network and share stories.

Watch a highlight reel from the Eurodad conference (Barcelona, January 2025) here. 

Eurodad and their DEAR partners will be in Sevilla for FfD4.  Follow Eurodad on Bluesky or Twitter/X to keep up to date with the campaign, or sign up to receive their newsletter.

For more information about participating in the free conference, visit its website.