Media Advisory
WHAT: 2024 ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum
The 2024 ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum builds on the 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report’s call for urgent action to close the $4.2 trillion dollar financing gap and reform the international financial architecture in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Under the theme: “Embarking on the path toward Ffd4”, the Forum will set the stage for the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) scheduled to take place in Spain in 2025. It will focus on crucial areas such as the crushing debt crisis, taxation, international trade and boosting private sector investment in developing countries among other issues.
During the Forum, there will also be a Special High-level Meeting with Bretton Woods Institutions, WTO and UNCTAD to boost closer cooperation and better work alignment with the UN to advance the reform of the international financial architecture.
The Forum is an annual intergovernmental event to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs by reviewing the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and other financing for development outcomes. The outcome of the Forum will also inform discussions at the Summit of the Future taking place on 22 to 23 September 2024.
WHO: The opening of the Forum will include statements by:
- Chair of the Forum: United Nations ECOSOC President, Paula Narváez
- United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres
- United Nations General Assembly President, Dennis Francis
Other participants:
Ministers, Vice Ministers, high-level representatives from private sector, multilateral development banks, international organizations and civil society, and experts from think tanks, foundations and academia.
Panelists attending in-person include:
- E. Mr. Mario Marcel, Minister of Finance, Chile
- E. Mr. Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Minister of Finance, Qatar
- E. Mr. Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, Ethiopia
- E. Mr. Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Development and Global Climate Policy, Denmark
- E. Mr. J.G. Moyo, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Zimbabwe
- E. Mr. Luis Gregorio Madera Sued, Deputy Minister of Planning and Public Investment, Dominican Republic
- Will Tracy, Vice President for Applied Complexity, Santa Fe Institute
- Sameer Maskey, Founder and CEO, FuseMachines Inc.
WHEN: Monday, 22 April –Thursday, 25 April 2024
WHERE:
United Nations Headquarters in New York, UN Trusteeship Council
It will be livestreamed at webtv.un.org.
Other Key Events:
2024 SDG Investment Fair (23-25 April 2024)
The 2024 SDG Investment Fair, which will be hybrid, will run in parallel to the Forum and is expected to attract some of the world’s leading institutional investors, development banks and venture philanthropists.
At this year’s 9th edition, representatives from Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mauritania, Pakistan, Serbia and Suriname will network with investors and discuss flagship SDG opportunities in key sectors. The projects presented could potentially mobilize billions of dollars toward SDG action from the ground up.
The Fair will also convene roundtables focused on public-private partnership infrastructure financing and identifying key regulatory enablers to promote sustainable investment to mobilize the capital required for realizing more inclusive, green development trajectories. In addition, the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance will launch new guidance on sovereign SDG bonds for countries and investors.
The Fair will conclude on 25 April with a special event hosted by the Governments of Türkiye and Azerbaijan on catalyzing private investment in Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Least Developed Countries.
WHO: SDG Fair opening:
- United Nations ECOSOC President, Paula Narváez
- United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Li Junhua
- European Investment Bank President, Nadia Calviño
Other in-person participants include:
- Zamir Iqbal, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Islamic Development Bank
- Daniel Zelikow, Chairman Governing Board, J.P. Morgan Development Finance Institution
- Maher Al-Haffar, Chief Financial Officer, CEMEX
- Adama Mariko, Secretary-General, Finance in Common
- Andrew Karp, Global Head of Sustainable Banking Solutions Group, Bank of America
WHERE:
Opening in-person at the Trusteeship Council Chamber and at the Ford Foundation
Center for Social Justice and Online. It will also be livestreamed at webtv.un.org
For more information, please view:
ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development
SDG Investment Fair
2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report
Media Contacts (interviews available upon request):
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Karen Newman, Email: knewman2014@gmail.com
Li Zhang, Email : zhang82@un.org
Helen Rosengren, Email: rosengrenh@un.org
UN Department of Global Communications
Sharon Birch, Email: birchs@un.org
Bingjie Wang, Email: bingjie.wang@un.org