It is an honour to join you this afternoon.
I want to offer three messages as we close this important forum.
First, a message of deep gratitude.
Thank you for your tireless engagement in this process.
You have shown up, spoken out, and stood firm in your demands for a financing system that serves people and planet.
You have reminded us that development is not just a matter of capital flows and balance sheets. It is about justice and accountability to those too often excluded from the decisions that shape their lives.
As civil society you have kept ambition high and complacency in check. You have pushed this process to be more inclusive, more honest, and more grounded in reality. The Civil Society Declaration presented is testament to that fact.
Your voice is indispensable. Because financing for development will only succeed if it is truly just. Truly equitable. Truly people-centered.
In the last two years, the UN has held a series of multi-stakeholder engagements and discussions on a new agenda on financing for development.Ìý
The Sevilla Commitment represents the synthesis of bold thinking and practical action.Ìý It can be the framework we need to set out on a different course, one that creates the most good for the most people.
Second, a message of solidarity.
We are navigating a turbulent global landscape: mounting debt, declining trust, widening inequality, and an international financial system that too often works for the few, not the many.
But in the face of these challenges, you have not given in to cynicism. Neither have we.
Together, we remain committed to the promise of the UN Charter, to raise living standards, find solutions to our common challenges and build a more peaceful and prosperous future for all.
This commitment is vitally important in a world of ballooning debt, weakened economies, a threatened environment, and leaders' diminished capacity to secure their countries' development.Ìý
In five years, we will reach the end of the SDGs, yet we are still decades away from achieving their promise: sustainable development for all. Our work is growing more urgent. Our collective action, and our ability to stand together, is as important today as it has ever been.
As the international order shifts, FFD4 demonstrates that we can still unite as a global community to deliver for people and the planet. To reform the international financial architecture and make it more effective, fair, and inclusive.
And make no mistake: civil society must remain at the heart of this work.
Third, and finally, is a message of hope.
Hope not as wishful thinking, but as a stubborn, disciplined refusal to accept the status quo.
We are five years from the finish line for the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet for many, the promise of 2015 still feels a lifetime away.
That must change.
We know what is needed, we have the tools, we have the frameworks.
What we need now is the political will, the courage, and the partnerships to deliver.
And as we’ve seen today, from your declaration and your vision, that hope is not misplaced.
So let us carry forward the clarity and conviction of this forum into the negotiations ahead — and beyond them.
Let us keep working, urgently, relentlessly, to build a world that honours the promise of the SDGs:
A world of fairness, opportunity and shared prosperity.
A world that leaves no one behind.
Thank you.
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