From Monday through Thursday, the once-in-a-decade event will focus on pressing global issues like hunger, poverty, climate change, healthcare, and peace.
In Seville, world leaders including Kenyan President William Ruto, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The event’s fourth edition features more than 4, 000 business, civil society, and financial institution representatives.
However, the US, the group’s principal player, is stifling the discussions as a result of President Donald Trump’s decision to reduce funding shortly after taking office in January.
More than 80% of all USAID programs were cancelled, according to US State Secretary Marco Rubio in March.
Additionally, Trump is imposing higher defense spending on NATO members against the wishes of Germany, the UK, and France.
However, the string of developmental aid cuts is concerning, according to Oxfam International, a global organization for advocacy, which claim to have been the biggest since 1960.
The UN also estimates $4 trillion as the size of the growing funding gap for development.
Seville Commitment
The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were approved at the previous meeting in 2015, and are expected to be accomplished by 2030, according to the conference organizers.
The SDGs, which include eradicating poverty and hunger, seem unlikely to be realized in five years due to the shrinking development aid.
A common declaration, which was put forth earlier in June in New York, pledges to support the UN’s development goals of improving gender equality and reforming international financial institutions.
Chola Milambo, Zambia’s permanent representative to the UN, claimed the document demonstrated that multilateralism can still be effective in achieving the development goals and that the world can overcome the financial obstacles that face them.
Source: Aljazeera
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