Advancing Financing for Development through South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Arab Region

The Regional Commissions of the United Nations conduct annual Sustainable Development Forums to review progress on five SDGs around a specific theme, with outcomes feeding into the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York each July. For 2025, the SDGs under review are SDG 3 (health and wellbeing), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 17 (partnerships, reviewed every year). The 2025 theme is “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind”. The Arab Forum for Sustainable Development (AFSD) convened 14-16 April 2025 on the theme “Restoring hope, raising ambition”, calling attention to inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A high-level segment during the Forum (at Ministerial level) focused on financing for development, given the upcoming Fourth Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain 30 June – 3July 2025. The Ministerial-level discussion at AFSD on 15 April (“On the Road to FfD4: Advancing a renewed global FfD framework and reforming the international financial architecture”) addressed the regional position on financing for development in the lead up to the FfD4 and deliberated on the First Draft Outcome Document released on 10 March (leaning on the priorities of the region). In the session were:

• Moderator: Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi Founder and Managing Director of the Gulf Economic Policy and Research Center
• Panelists: Yassine Jaber, Minister of Finance of Lebanon; Abbas Kadhom Obaid, Chair of the Group of 77 and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations; Jesús Ignacio Santos Aguado, Ambassador of Spain to Lebanon; and, Mahmoud Mohieldin, United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Discussants (live from New York): Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and Dima Al-Khatib Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.

With just five years remaining until the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs, only 17% of our global targets are currently on track, and the annual SDG investment gap for developing countries remains high at $4 trillion. In the Arab region, keeping in mind that the region faces challenges related to data availability, experts raise that it will take 60 more years to meet regional targets. The annual development financing gap remains significant at $660 billion.     The Arab Sustainable Development Report 2024 highlights key challenges that need urgent attention to protect or speed up progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include:

• Food security: The region imports most of its staple foods, and one-third of its countries are affected by conflict. This makes it especially vulnerable to price spikes and food shortages.
• Climate crisis: The region faces rising temperatures and water scarcity, along with more frequent droughts, sandstorms, and other natural disasters that worsen the effects of shocks.
• Ongoing conflict: Many countries – such as Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – are affected facing major setbacks in development and human suffering.

South-South and triangular cooperation has power and potential to help accelerate progress on the SDGs in the region by enabling and facilitating exchanges on best-fit solutions rooted in the regional context. The Arab region has produced numerous solutions that can be applied more systematically across the region through South-South cooperation. Also, by providing and channeling support that recognizes individual strengths and needs, and poses no additional burden.     During the Ministerial dialogue on financing for development at AFSD, the UNOSSC Director Dima Al-Khatib framed the imperatives for leveraging the full potential of South-South and triangular cooperation to advance regional aspirations for fairer financial architecture. She raised the need to rethink the way we view the Global South, to recognize their evolution alongside the shifts in the development landscape; and, to also rethink the way we do development, recognizing the assets that the Global South also possess and could be leveraged for the benefit of peers. Please click here to read full remarks of UNOSSC Director Dima Al-Khatib). The G77 Chair pointed out that, in the context of financing for development, South-South and triangular cooperation needs to be viewed as additional strengths that serve as complements, and not alternatives, to traditional development cooperation (please see full session here).   ?? Download UNOSSC Director Dima Al-Khatib’s statement.