The Trump administration is undertaking a sweeping effort to claw back a range of prior United Nations commitments to promote internationally agreed development and anti-poverty goals, scale back global corporate regulation, and reform the international financial architecture, according to internal U.S. amendments in negotiations on development financing.
The U.S. push is playing out in closed-door negotiations in advance of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, FfD4, scheduled to take place in Seville, Spain, from June 30 to July 3. Diplomats involved in the New York talks are growing increasingly concerned that they will be unable to deliver a consensus declaration by a June 16 deadline, forcing states to vote for a final document that Washington is expected to disregard.
The Spain conference marks the 10th anniversary of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, an international pact that established a blueprint for financing the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, a set of internationally recognized targets for ending extreme poverty and alleviating a broad range of social, environmental, and health ills by the year 2030. The U.S. no longer recognizes the validity of the SDGs and has asked for references to the phrase to be changed to “responsible development” goals.
About the author
Colum Lynch
Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post. Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.
