On the Seville conference and the drastic budget cuts of the USA, which is not participating in the meeting

At the initiative of the United Nations (UN), international experts and leaders are gathering today in Seville, Spain, for a conference on financing for development, in difficulties due to global crises and drastic budget cuts in the United States of America (USA), which is not participating in the gathering.

At least 50 heads of state and government are expected in Seville for a four-day summit on financing for development, along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and 4.000 civil society representatives.

Montenegro is represented at the meeting by President Jakov Milatović.

The aim of the International Conference on Financing for Development, the fourth of its kind since 2002, is to find solutions for the countries of the South, which are faced, according to the United Nations, with a financing deficit estimated at 4.000 billion dollars a year, and to try to find ways to bridge this deficit.

Among the leaders announced to visit the heat-stricken capital of Spain's Andalusia region are French President Emmanuel Macron, Senegalese President Basirou Diomaye Faye and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Their South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa has canceled his visit citing domestic political reasons.

The conference's co-hosts, the United States and Spain, believe it is a chance to reverse the downward spiral and close the massive $4.000 trillion gap in annual financing and development promotion, to lift millions of people out of poverty and help achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Finding funds will be difficult. The US, previously the leading financier, has withdrawn and is not participating.

At the last preparatory meeting on June 17, the US rejected the 38-page final document of the conference, which had been negotiated by UN member states for months, and announced its withdrawal from the process and the Seville conference. The other countries then approved the document by consensus and sent it to Seville, where the conference participants are expected to adopt it without changes. It will be known as the Seville Commitments.

This conference is taking place in a particularly serious context for development financing, hit full force by the cuts in humanitarian aid decided by US President Donald Trump, cutting 83 percent of funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s overseas programs.

With $63 billion in public aid in 2024, the US was the main donor to numerous agencies and NGOs that are now facing great difficulties, especially since other countries such as France, Britain and Germany have also reduced aid.

"Rich country governments are introducing the biggest cuts to development financing since 1960," the non-governmental organization Oxfam said on Friday, expressing concern that countries in the South will be "tragically set back" from their development path.

For these countries, the situation is even more delicate as public debt has increased since the Covid-19 crisis. According to the United Nations, the debt of the least developed countries has tripled in 15 years, and 3,3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt repayment than on health or education.

"We need to face the truth, many commitments remain unfulfilled, and the world is being hit by seismic shocks that are making it increasingly difficult to address financial challenges," said Antonio Guterres, referring to the world's numerous conflicts.

He emphasized that in such a turbulent context, one must not allow ambitions to be abandoned.

The Seville Document, which will be officially adopted at the end of the conference, calls for a review of the international financial architecture and more space for countries of the South in major institutions.

The 38-page text, which will be supplemented by declarations within the Seville Platform for Action, will serve as a plan for financing development over the next ten years. It will be a political declaration that will not be legally binding.