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STORY: UN / COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
TRT: 01:47
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
20 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Sevilla was a moment of choice. At a time when multilateralism is under multiple threats, Member States made a choice to stand together. To overcome geopolitical divisions and chart a common course. And to keep their promises to developing countries, which are starved of investment and drowning in debt.”
4. Wide shot, conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We face a major new shock: the conflict in the Middle East. The violence and economic fallout are spilling across the region — and around the world. We are seeing in real time the war’s impacts on the cost of fuel, fertilizer and food — as well as trade, transportation and tourism. Government finances are stressed through rising energy costs, slower growth and currency depreciations — adding even more pressure to the debt burdens shouldered by developing countries.”
6. Wide shot, conference room applause
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Governments are spending more on the instruments of death than the foundations of development and peace. Through it all, the global financial system is struggling to meet the needs of developing countries and still reflects the economic and power structures of the past. One by one, these shockwaves of instability and unrest are contaminating development prospects at a time when they’re needed most.”
8. Wide shot, conference room
Secretary-General António Guterres today (20 Apr) called for translating the promises made in Sevilla into concrete progress and said governments “are spending more on the instruments of death than the foundations of development and peace,” while the global financial system “is struggling to meet the needs of developing countries.”
Guterres said, “Sevilla was a moment of choice. At a time when multilateralism is under multiple threats, Member States made a choice to stand together. To overcome geopolitical divisions and chart a common course. And to keep their promises to developing countries, which are starved of investment and drowning in debt.”
He said the world now faces “a major new shock: the conflict in the Middle East.”
Guterres said, “the violence and economic fallout are spilling across the region — and around the world. We are seeing in real time the war’s impacts on the cost of fuel, fertilizer and food — as well as trade, transportation and tourism.”
Government finances, he said, “are stressed through rising energy costs, slower growth and currency depreciations — adding even more pressure to the debt burdens shouldered by developing countries.”
The Secretary-General said, “one by one, these shockwaves of instability and unrest are contaminating development prospects at a time when they’re needed most,” and highlighted three broad areas of focus.
First, he said it’s time to rev-up the machinery of finance. By increasing the assets housed in Multilateral Development Banks, by combining public and private finance in new and expanded ways to support development. Also, by mobilizing domestic resources and channelling them to the areas of greatest need — including by tackling illicit financial flows.
Finally, the Secretary-General renewed his call to reform the international financial architecture.
The financing gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals now stands at over $4 trillion annually and it is growing fast.
The Financing for Development Forum is the opening event of the Financing for Development Week, which will feature several events, including a Special High-Level meeting with Bretton Woods Institutions on Tuesday, and the SDG Investment Fair from 21 to 23 April.
This is the first major gathering on this topic since Member States adopted the Sevilla Commitment last year.
