UN meet to drum up trillions to combat poverty

Many of the world’s nations are gathering starting Monday in Spain for a high-level conference to tackle the growing gap between rich and poor nations and try to drum up trillions of dollars needed to close it.

The United States, previously a major contributor, pulled its participation, so finding funding will be tough.

The four-day Financing for Development meeting in the southern city of Seville is taking place as many countries face escalating debt burdens, declining investments, decreasing international aid and increasing trade barriers.

The UN and Spain, the conference co-hosts, believe the meeting is an opportunity to reverse the downward spiral, close the staggering $4 trillion annual financing gap to promote development, bring millions of people out of poverty and help achieve the UN’s wide-ranging and badly lagging Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

The ambitious package seeks to reverse decline in development . High-level delegations, including more than 70 world leaders, are attending in Seville, the UN said, along with several thousand others from international financial institutions, development banks, philanthropic organisations, the private sector and civil society.

Among the proposals and actions, it calls for minimum tax revenue of 15 per cent of a country’s GDP to increase government resources, a tripling of lending by multilateral development banks, and scaling up private financing by providing investment incentives in critical areas like infrastructure.

It also calls for a number of reforms to help countries deal with rising debt. Last year, 3.3 billion people were living in countries that pay more interest on their debts than they spend on health or education.