I have joined world leaders in Seville, Spain, for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4).
This is the only space where leaders from all governments, international and regional organisations, financial and trade institutions, businesses, civil society, and the UN System unite at the highest levels, fostering stronger global cooperation.
This is the first Financing for Development Conference in a decade. In a context where development financing for the most critical needs of young people continues to shrink and is under increasing threat, FfD4 presented an opportunity for world leaders to reconfigure and recommit to financing these needs.
Unfortunately, and similar to the observation of many young people, youth needs have conspicuously been relegated to side event spaces, and young people barely have any space to contribute meaningfully to this reconfiguration of the global financial architecture.
We cannot continue doing things the same way and expect any different results. In these crises, there's a huge opportunity to get young people involved meaningfully to shape the future of development financing and deliver working solutions.
FfD4 is a huge opportunity missed, and we may refer back to it as the opportunity we had to change things, but for whatever reason, we refused.
#GetYouthInvolved