IIED's debt solution adopted in UN outcome on development finance
IIED's Global Small Island Developing States Debt Sustainability Support Service has been formally included in the outcome document of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), marking a significant breakthrough for debt and climate justice.
Event panel: Ritu Bharadwaj, IIED; Li Junhua, Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs; H.E. Hussain Mohamed Latheef, vice-president of the Maldives; H.E. Gaston Alphonso Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda; Rabab Fatima, High Representative for UN-OHRLLS; and H.E. Ianthe Douglas, First Secretary, Palau Mission to the UN and Representative of AOSIS (Photo: IIED)
The UN’s financing for development process seeks to mobilise finance and policy for sustainable development in the global South.
The 2025 conference, FfD4, aimed to deliver a new vision for development finance at a critical moment for multilateralism and sustainable development. Its outcome document, the compromiso de Sevilla (or Sevilla commitment), represents a globally negotiated commitment to reform the international financing framework for sustainable development.
The document calls for the operationalisation of the Global Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Debt Sustainability Support Service (DSSS) to support effective debt management and address debt vulnerability in the short and long term. The inclusion of the DSSS in the document represents formal international endorsement of a SIDS-led, equity-driven solution.
Many of the world's 57 SIDS and territories are caught in a downward economic and social spiral triggered by rising debt and repeated climate-related disasters. IIED's research highlighted the SIDS' urgent financial plight.
To address these challenges, IIED co-developed the DSSS, a country-led mechanism, to:
- Unlock fiscal space through debt restructuring
- Provide protection via climate insurance
- Enable resilience investment through green and blue bonds, and
- Offer expert legal and advisory support.
Working with SIDS leaders, IIED convened a strategic advisory group co-chaired by President Mohamed Muizzu of the Maldives and Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda to guide the design of the service.
At FfD4, the DSSS shifted from being a concept to being incorporated into formal multilateral policy language, with the potential to influence funding flows, institutional adoption, and systemic reform.
Project lead Ritu Bharadwaj said: "This isn't just policy influence, it is structural reform. We helped turn a SIDS-led idea into a globally mandated solution."
