UN Financing For Sustainable Development Report 2024:
A new report released by the United Nations (UN) stated that more investment is needed if the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed upon by all United Nations members back in 2015, are to be achieved by 2030.
- The reason for this situation is due to staggering debt burdens and sky-high borrowing costs faced by developing countries that prevent them from responding to the confluence of crises they face.
Key Highlights of UN Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024:
- Rising geopolitical tensions, climate disasters and a global cost-of-living crisis have hit billions of people globally, which has halted the progress on healthcare, education, and other development targets.
- Debt services in the Least developed countries (LDC) will increase from USD 26 billion annually in 2022 to USD 40 billion annually between 2023 and 2025.
- Stronger and more frequent disasters, caused by the ongoing climate crisis, account for more than half of the debt upsurge in vulnerable countries.
- The poorest countries now spend 12% of their revenues on interest payments, 4 times more than they spent a decade ago.
- Roughly 40% of the global population live in countries where governments spend more on interest payments than on education or health.
- In Least developed countries, development fundings are slowing down.
- Due to several reasons such as low domestic revenue growth due to tax evasion and avoidance, falling rate of corporate tax (which was 28.2% in 2000 to 21.1% in 2023), due to globalisation and tax competition etc.
- Also, Official Development Assistance (ODA) from OECD countries and climate finance commitments are not being met.
- According to the Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads Report 2024, around USD 4.2 trillion investments is needed to close the development financing gap.
- This number was USD 2.5 trillion before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
