UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Development financing trends are going in the wrong direction, with progress in many areas not only stalled but reversing due to weakened global collaboration, rising trade barriers, increased geopolitical tensions, repeated climate-related shocks, and an alarming assault on multilateralism, a UN report said Thursday.
An increasing number of developing countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, confront large unmet Sustainable Development Goals spending needs amid an overall financing squeeze, and they simultaneously face falling aid, rising costs from environmental degradation and climate impacts, high costs of capital, and high debt service, according to the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026.
The report assessed progress on the Sevilla Commitment -- the blueprint for action on financing for sustainable development agreed at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025. Many of the reforms envisioned under the Sevilla Commitment would give developing countries better and more nimble access to the funding they need.
The developing countries face heavy debt burdens, falling financial aid, declining foreign direct investment, and high tariffs, the report showed.
According to the report, debt service in developing countries reached 20-year highs in 2024.
"Global development requires working together for common goals to avoid reversing the gains of what has been painstakingly built," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. "Implementing the Sevilla Commitment is our best chance to demonstrate the global community's enduring commitment to cooperation and to unlock the finance needed to keep the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals."
"This is an extremely perilous time for international cooperation, as geopolitical considerations are increasingly shaping economic relations and financial policies," said UN Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which coordinates the production of the multi-agency report.
"However, there has been welcome resilience in many areas, such as renewable energy investment, in part due to determined inter-country collaboration in the face of rising attacks on multilateralism," Li said.
According to the report, capital spending on renewable energy reached a record high in 2024 at 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars, with investment in renewables totaling twice that of fossil fuels, which fell to a historic low. The value of South-South trade also increased more than fourfold in the last 20 years.
However, due to global fragmentation and deepening geopolitical divisions, the reforms agreed in the Sevilla Commitment have become more difficult to implement, the report said.
Given global geopolitical challenges, the report concluded that economic hyper-globalization is no longer viable and recommends instead a multilayered approach to international cooperation that emphasizes moving forward on impactful reforms.
Countries should not retreat from multilateralism and should link their domestic investments in their people and climate-proof infrastructure with regional and global support, the report said. ■
