LocationsKeynote Speech by Ms Beate Trankmann at the Building Momentum Towards the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) Seminar
June 20, 2025
UNDP Resident Representative in China, Beate Trankmann, delivered a keynote speech at the "Building Momentum Towards the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4)" Seminar in Beijing, China.
Excellency Ambassador Colomer
Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon.
As we were reminded by previous speakers, the current SDG financing gap stands at an exorbitant 4.2 trillion dollars per year – having increased on the back of the pandemic making recovery muted at best, and uneven at worst.
The latest UNDP report also shows human development losing momentum and further widening of the gaps between Low HDI and Very High HDI countries, reversing an over two-decade-long trend of steadily reducing inequalities between wealthy and poorer nations.
The picture is rendered ever more bleak by conflicts, heightened, geopolitical uncertainty, and climate change impacts – 6.7 million more people are expected to be displaced by the end of 2026, on top of the current 122 million people.
All of this is having a profound impact on the development landscape, including international development cooperation and financing for development.
In particular, Official Development Assistance (ODA), a critical source of funding for many developing countries, has seen a drastic reduction in just the last few years. Between its 2023 peak and 2025, ODA from four out of the five top DAC donors (representing 53% of the total) fell by 23%.
On top of this, we are also facing prioritisation challenges:
- In 2024, only 16.5% of these resources went to the world’s poorest countries;
- Humanitarian crises are crowding out financing for longer-term development priorities, like climate action;
- And debt distress is reaching new heights not seen in more than two decades,vi leading to ballooning debt servicing obligations for many developing economies. Four in ten people live in countries where governments spend more on paying interest, than on education, or health.
Despite this backdrop, the challenge is not so much about scarcity, but rather about resource alignment, and a fundamental reform of our financial systems.
Indeed, global wealth is expected to reach 629 trillion dollars by 2027. [1] Only 1% of this would be sufficient to meet SDG financing needs in developing countries.
To that end, the upcoming FFD4 is a once in a decade opportunity - bringing together governments, investors, development banks and multilateral partners to forge broader, innovative financing partnerships and tools that can facilitate reallocation at scale towards sustainable development objectives, climate action and crisis recovery.
In particular, the Sevilla Platform for Action, to be launched during the conference, will set a bold global agenda. The purpose is to refocus and inject new momentum on reforming national and international financial systems for more inclusive, accountable and effective investments into the SDGs.
"The challenge is not so much about scarcity, but rather about resource alignment, and a fundamental reform of our financial systems."
At UNDP, we are working in countries to strengthen institutions, align financial systems with national priorities, and convene diverse actors around practical solutions to connect capital to country-led development goals.
For example, through the integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs) – a UNDP flagship initiative, we have supported more than 50 countries in shaping measurable policy reforms.
The FFD4 draft outcome document reinforces a commitment to INFFs, building on their role as country-led platforms to align budgets with sustainable development, invest in digital public infrastructure, and use them as a basis for engaging development partners.
To further align and unlock sustainable investment at scale, let me touch on three critical areas, central to the forthcoming discussions in Seville:
First, repurposing debt to free up fiscal space for the SDGs, including through debt for development swaps. Such mechanisms have emerged as an important part of the solution to tackle debt distress and redirect existing financial commitments towards sustainable development priorities. We have been engaging with different partners as interest is increasing in their feasibility, including here in China.
Debt swaps are in fact becoming increasingly mainstream and feature in global platforms such as the One Ocean Finance platform [2], launched in the lead up to the UN Ocean Conference which concluded last week.
Second, forging broader financing partnerships for greater impact. FFD4 is reaffirming the essential role of grant ODA funding as seed financing to mobilize resources at scale.
This will require creating blended financing opportunities with grant and loan providers, including development finance institutions and commercial banks to increase flows towards the SDGs.
UNDP supports this by using the voluntary core contributions we receive from development partners as a catalyst to advance financial governance and policy innovation and create the enabling conditions for SDG investment. For every US$1 received in funding between 2022 and 2024, we promoted nearly US$60 in public and private investments aligned with the SDGs, mobilizing a total of US$870 billion for sustainable development in emerging economies.
In China, we are likewise exploring new partnerships around blended financing opportunities with critical stakeholders such as national and international development banks and CIDCA. This includes putting forward our grant funding and platforms to unlock public and corporate finance at scale for SDG impact.
Lastly, incentivizing private finance at scale by de-risking investments into sustainable development. To this end, the Sevilla Platform for Action highlights the need for more catalytic, aligned and predictable national and international public finance to unlock private capital.
Moving forward, despite the many challenges, there is reason for optimism. The urgency of improving sustainable finance has increasingly become a global consensus.
Last year’s UN Climate Conference in Baku concluded with an agreement calling on developed countries to deliver 300 billion dollars per year by 2035 to support developing countries in their fight against climate change. While this still falls short of what is needed, it is a threefold increase compared to the levels committed previously at the Paris Climate COP in 2015.
In addition, China continues to extend financial support to other developing countries through South-South cooperation, particularly in climate change and sustainable development. At COP29, it announced that it has provided and mobilized over 177 billion yuan (or 24.5 billion dollars) in climate-related funds for other developing countries since 2016.
We look forward to continue working with our partners in China, Spain and around the world to deliver on the commitments made, recalling that FFD4 is not just about more finance. It’s about financing development differently and more effectively.
[2] UN and Partners Join Forces to Advance a Transformative Financial Architecture for the Ocean
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