Minister for Development delivers UK national
statement at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for
Development (FFD4) in Seville.
"Good afternoon, everyone.
Seville must be the start of a new chapter in how we finance
development and sustainable growth over the next decade.
FFD4 sets out three critical shifts; and the UK will respond.
Firstly, helping countries to raise more of their own revenues.
The UK will support countries to raise more finance domestically,
and manage it better, by sharing expertise from our own revenue
authority and finance ministry.
And we will work with all partners to take urgent action to
tackle unsustainable debt. We cannot do this alone.
We will work through the G20 to strengthen, expand and reform the
Common Framework, ensuring timely and predictable relief for debt
distressed countries.
We will work with partners to maintain momentum on reforms to the
existing debt architecture including to make restructurings
quicker and more efficient.
We must also ensure future debt sustainability by pressing for
more responsible and transparent lending and borrowing and
scaling UK-championed clauses that pause debt repayments when a
crisis hits.
The second is on mobilising international finance at scale.
Increasing access to finance from all sources, beyond ODA.
Leveraging and multiplying wherever we can.
We need private capital at a much greater scale in developing
countries. We are proud to launch a coalition of governments,
finance institutions, and investors at FFD4.
With the aim of mobilising high-quality finance for emerging and
developing economies through stock exchanges.
We will work with the UK industry experts to unlock and scale up
global institutional capital, develop local currency markets and
help to tackle exchange rate risks in developing countries.
I will look at the evidence on the barriers to investment, and if
there need to be changes to our regulatory approach, I will need
to work with international partners and groups to build a
coalition to call for those changes.
And we welcome the ambition to triple the size of MDB financing.
This will require stretching balance sheets and using guarantees,
but that can only get us so far.
We will also need to inject more capital into some MDBs, which is
why the UK supports a capital increase for the World Bank's IBRD,
conditional on reforms.
If agreed, this could unlock billions of dollars
annually.
We have heard the call to explore new sources of climate finance.
That is why we have committed to and are pushing for agreement on
the International Maritime Organisation's Net Zero Framework.
The third is making the system work better for developing
countries.
This means getting behind countries own priorities and plans.
It means putting women and girls at the heart of everything we
do.
It also means simplifying and streamlining the aid architecture,
so it is easier for countries to engage and access finance.
We must do more through multilateral organisations that pool and
multiply resources, and drive reform across the multilateral
system to make it faster, more effective and more sustainable.
That is why we are proud to be GAVI's largest investor, as
announced last week at the GAVI replenishment.
It also means creating a fairer system where developing countries
have greater voice and participation to shape the outcomes they
need.
That is why the UK is calling for more voice and representation
for low-income and vulnerable countries in the World Bank and
IMF.
And ensuring countries can better handle shocks and build
resilience to climate change.
It is unacceptable that only 2% of crisis finance is pre-arranged
when 35% of shocks are modellable.
That is why we are launching a global coalition to scale up the
use of pre-arranged finance. And we will work with the insurance
industry to help deliver this.
I am proud that the UK will be the first country to report and
publish our annual pre -arranged finance figures.
This work is urgent and cannot wait.
So let us make Seville a springboard for what can and must come
next.
Thank you."
