Albares prepares for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, Seville 2025, in Paris

Meeting between the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, and the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, in Paris

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has made progress in Paris in the preparatory work for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). He has done so in the framework of the 2024 high-level meeting of the OECD Development Centre (DEV) promoted by Spain with the aim of contributing to the success of the process that will lead to the celebration of this important event in July 2025 in Seville.

Albares, who co-chaired this high-level meeting after Spain's active participation in the decision to dedicate this meeting to financing for development, used this inclusive platform for exchange between OECD countries and development partners as an opportunity to advance the work that will lead to the Seville Conference on Financing for Development.

New contributions

And in this framework, Minister Albares announced two new voluntary contributions from Spain, totalling 595,000 euros, to support the Centre's work on government revenue statistics, especially in Africa, but also in Latin America and the Caribbean; as well as for the African Virtual Investment Platform.

'LEO Report'

Minister Albares also presided over the official presentation of the 'Latin American Economic Outook - LEO 2024'. Under the title 'Financing Sustainable Development', the aim is to identify and analyse alternative sources of financing in an environment of fiscal restrictions in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is one of the OECD's flagship reports, which is produced jointly with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and the European Commission.

During his speech at the presentation of the seventeenth edition of this report, the minister announced that Spain will work to find common ground and shared visions in important areas such as development in transition, the use of indicators such as the multidimensional vulnerability index, triangular and South-South cooperation, gender equality, climate change and biodiversity loss.

Albares expressed his desire to build more inclusive and sustainable societies, for which he considered it necessary to grow, close gaps and fight inequalities. In this regard, he pointed out that funding is essential to achieve this goal, as is working better with the private sector, from a perspective of cohesion, inclusion and social justice.

Before these meetings, and outside the OECD, the minister had the opportunity to meet with the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, with whom he discussed issues such as the elections to the UNESCO Directorate-General, as well as the events in which Spain will collaborate with this organisation in the near future, including the 4th Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination and Mondiacult, which Barcelona will host in September 2025.

Non official translation