THE SECRETARY-GENERAL -- REMARKS TO THE MEDIA AT PRESS CONFERENCE TO LAUNCH THE SEVILLA FORUM ON DEBT

Ladies and gentlemen of the media.  

 

Today’s launch is a critical step in bringing to life the Sevilla Commitment and the Sevilla Platform for Action — both announced at June’s Fourth International Financing for Development Conference.

 

The Conference and its outcomes highlighted a key truth.

 

Development is not an abstraction.

 

Development is about families getting enough to eat.

 

It’s about children gaining an education.

 

It’s about putting health care within reach of all people.

 

It’s about clean water and sanitation.

 

And it’s about countries creating jobs and opportunities for their people.

 

But around the world, developing countries face a serious barrier to development.

 

Debt.

 

Borrowing should work for — not against — developing countries.

 

But countries are getting crushed.

 

Developing countries spend $1.4 trillion on annual debt service.

 

61 of them spent 10 per cent or more of their government revenues on interest payments last year.

 

And 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on servicing debt than on health or education.

 

Countries should never have to choose between servicing their debt or serving their people.

In Sevilla, countries agreed to take action to lower borrowing costs, enable fair and timely debt restructuring, and prevent debt crises from happening in the first place.

 

But we all know the resistance that exists in relation to these transformations. 

 

The Sevilla Commitment set an ambitious and integrated roadmap to make this happen.

 

This includes a borrowers’ platform to give developing countries a greater voice in the debt architecture, and new efforts to develop principles for responsible sovereign borrowing and lending.  

 

I’ll never forget in a recent meeting in Paris where the President of Zambia was describing the operation to restructure the debt in Zambia telling us that everybody was talking with everybody except Zambia.  This is something that obviously is not acceptable. 

 

So, a borrowers’ platform is essential to give voice in the debt architecture to developing countries and to create principles for responsible sovereign borrowing and lending.   

 

Alongside this work, the Sevilla Platform for Action included 130 specific initiatives to help developing countries channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need.   

 

The Sevilla Forum on Debt we’re launching today is one of the most eagerly anticipated ones.

 

Hosted by Spain with the support of the United Nations, this Forum will bring together all partners — including developed and developing countries alike, and finance ministers and creditors — in a global dialogue on debt.

 

The Forum will sustain political attention on the agreements on debt reached in Sevilla, while developing technical pathways to bring them to life.

 

This includes taking forward the commitment to consolidate and uphold principles on responsible borrowing and lending.

 

And it includes gathering new ideas to advance debt architecture reform, which is long overdue. 

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

The Sevilla Forum on Debt will help deliver the financial justice that people and countries need and deserve.

 

The United Nations is proud to be part of this effort, and I thank Minister Cuerpo and the Government of Spain for their tireless efforts in this regard.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

United Nations