The World Needs a Rescue Plan for Sustainable Development

The Sevilla conference on investing in this mission could restore faith in international cooperation to achieve its key goals

- António Guterres

This month, leaders will gather in Sevilla, Spain, on a rescue mission: to help fix how the world invests in sustainable development. The stakes could not be higher. A decade after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and many global commitments to finance them, two-thirds of the targets are lagging. And the world is falling short by over $4 trillion annually in the resources developing countries need to deliver on these promises by 2030.

Meanwhile, the global economy is slowing, trade tensions are rising, aid budgets are being slashed while military spending soars, and international cooperation is under unprecedented strain. The global development crisis is not abstract. It is measured in families going to bed hungry, children going unvaccinated, girls being forced to drop out of school and entire communities deprived of basic services.

We must correct course.

That begins at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, where an ambitious, globally supported plan to invest in the SDGs must be adopted. That plan should include three essential elements.