The “Compromiso de Sevilla”: A Renewed Global Framework for Financing Development

The FFD4
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) provided a unique opportunity to reform financing at all levels, including to support reform of the international financial architecture and addressing financing challenges preventing the urgently needed investment push for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Compromiso de Sevilla
The FFD4 opened on 30 June 2025 in Sevilla with the adoption of the “Sevilla Commitment” or “Compromiso de Sevilla”, an intergovernmentally negotiated outcome that lays the foundation for a renewed global framework to tackle sustainable development challenges. Commitments include steps to close the $4 trillion financing gap for the SDGs, address the debt crises, and reform the rules of the system to make the international financial system fairer and more transparent, putting people’s needs at the center, and injecting new hope for people around the world.

The Compromiso de Sevilla:
• is a global promise to fix how the world supports countries as they climb the development ladder;
• stands as a testament to our sense of resolve, outlining the commitments, solutions, and actions to put us back on track to achieve the SDGs;
• sets out a new global roadmap to raise the trillions of dollars needed each year to achieve sustainable development, building on previous international agreements;
• calls for fairer tax systems, cracking down on tax evasion and illicit financial flows, and strengthening public development banks to support national priorities;
• highlights the need for new tools to ease debt pressures on vulnerable countries, including debt-swap schemes, options to pause payments during crises, and better transparency;
• aims to make the global financial system more inclusive and accountable, with improved coordination, stronger data systems, and broader participation from civil society and others.

Countries - with the Compromiso de Sevilla - committed to boosting the capacity of multilateral development banks, increasing the use of special drawing rights, and attracting more private investment to support development.

Illicit financial flows
The point n. 29 of the Compromiso de Sevilla concerns the fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs), a very important theme for the UIA Banking and Financial Services Law Commission.
IFFs refer to the movement of money across borders that is illegal in its source (e.g. corruption, smuggling), its transfer (e.g. tax evasion), or its use (e.g. terrorist financing).
IFFs constitute a major disabler to sustainable development. They can have a direct impact on a country’s ability to raise, retain and mobilise its own resources to finance sustainable development.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs call on countries to:
• significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows by 2030;
• substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.

Sevilla Platform for Action
The Compromiso de Sevilla launched the Sevilla Platform for Action.

In the Sevilla Platform for Action, coalitions of countries and stakeholders have put forward more than 130 high-impact initiatives to begin implementation of the Compromiso de Sevilla on day one. These initiatives complement the renewed global financing framework adopted by world leaders and will help deliver tangible progress to finance our future, across the three main sets of commitments of the Compromiso: to catalyze investments at scale, address debt challenges, and support reforms for a transparent and fair architecture.

Barbara Bandiera,
President of the UIA Banking and Financial Services Law Commission,
Milan, Italy