ITUC calls for "systemic shift" at UN Financing for Development Forum

photo: UNICEF Patrick Brown

The ITUC demands substantial changes in global financial strategies to better meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), after the conclusion of the United Nations’ Financing for Development Forum (FfD Forum).

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “There were several positive commitments at the conclusion of the FfD Forum that deserve cautious praise, but overall it’s clear that we need a systematic shift, as we set out in our demands before the Forum, to deliver improvements for working people.”

Key highlights from the FfD Forum outcomes include:

  • Crucial references to decent work and the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions.
  • A commitment to equal pay for equal work and to strengthen social protection systems, which are vital for reducing inequalities.
  • The acknowledgment of the essential alignment between policy and financial commitments towards sustainable development.
  • A commitment to integrate gender-sensitive strategies into poverty eradication and the need to redistribute care work.
  • The reference to progressive taxation and enhancing tax cooperation at the UN level.
  • The call for improved mechanisms to address sovereign external debt distress, which must include the participation of private creditors and expand support to vulnerable countries.
  • The support for reforming multilateral development banks. However, the ITUC is cautious about the emphasis on innovative financing, which has shown limited development impact.

In this intervention at the FfD Forum, Anne Cecile Coly from UNSAS, Senegal, explained that private financing too often does not deliver the decent work promised, and that it is up to governments to change this.

Luc Triangle continued: “It is encouraging to see recognition of the need to scale up financing for development, but it’s clearly not enough to meet the urgent need for a deep economic, societal and environmental transformation.

"It must translate into concrete, ambitious action at all levels including deeper reform of the international financial architecture, as we set out in this statement, to rescue the SDGs. We must continue this work at the Summit of the Future in September and the Financing for Development Conference in June 2025.”