An inter-NGO collective campaign questions the issues at stake at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact

On the occasion of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to be held in Paris on June 22 and 23, 2023, a coalition of French and international non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations is launching a campaign whose common objective is to ask the leaders of industrialized countries for concrete and massive financial commitments in favor of the countries of the Global South. These commitments include the revision or cancellation of these countries’ debts, and an increase in aid.

Led by Oxfam France - and including CCFD-Terre Solidaire, CARE France, ONE, Global Citizen and the Climate Action Network - this informal coalition is first and foremost an opportunity - in collaboration with the international networks involved and under the impetus of Oxfam France - to collectively make a series of political demands on the substance of the Summit and on the participation of civil society organizations in the planned work. It is also an opportunity to inform and enlighten citizens about the real issues involved in financing climate action and development.

The campaign

On the second half of June 2023, these organizations are proposing an integrated, multi-stakeholder campaign with the intention of pushing leading politicians to make tangible commitments to countries in the global South, with the priorities of financing climate action that weakens populations and fighting the spread of world hunger.

To ensure that this Summit is not just another date on the leaders’ agenda, but an opportunity to demonstrate major progress for the most vulnerable countries, the NGOs CCFD-Terre Solidaire, CARE France, ONE, Oxfam France, Global Citizen and the Climate Action Network will be taking the floor on June 20 at an unprecedented joint press conference to warn the event’s stakeholders of the urgency of drastically reforming the world’s financial system.

In the days leading up to the Summit, a multi-actor video will also be unveiled to explain what is at stake at this international meeting, and why it is urgent for world leaders to assume their responsibilities.

The NGO CARE, in coalition with other NGOs, will be hosting a media event, as well as a number of personalities from countries in the Global South.

The approach

The main demands shared by these associations are the revision or cancellation of the debt owed by countries in the Global South, and a much more significant increase in French - and more generally the Global North - official development assistance.

The coalition of CSOs/NGOs is asking very concretely:

• To democratize the international financial architecture through the advent of a fairer financial system,

• A fundamental work on debt and tax justice for a genuine transformation of North/South financial relations, including a systematic fight against tax evasion and regulation of the private sector,

• To honor commitments made regarding official development assistance (ODA) and, beyond that, increase funding dedicated to ODA, notably through the allocation of new special drawing rights,

• A "shock" for climate financing.

In this regard, Oxfam also requests:

• For rich countries to borrow $11.5 trillion to finance an unprecedented climate debt swap with poorer countries, in addition to finally honoring their aid commitments, for which they are accumulating a $6.5 trillion backlog. Borrowing $11.5 trillion to help pay the poorest countries’ climate bill is far less than they borrowed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. With this borrowing, their debt-to-GDP ratio would only slightly exceed the peak of the pandemic, while the countries of the South are unfairly forced to borrow at excessively high rates, adding to their debt burden.

• The introduction of a progressive tax on net wealth of up to 5% to add a base of 1 100 billion dollars to the budgets of donor countries (members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee) each year. The production of progressive wealth taxes and better distributed Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) would be enough to finance these common-sense policies and much more. And the surplus money would also enable rich countries to make strategic investments aimed at reducing inequalities in their own countries.

• To ensure that rich countries keep their aid commitments to the poorest countries, as they have resolutely failed to do so for over 50 years, to the tune of 6,500 billion dollars. Since 1970, the United Nations has adopted a resolution calling on rich countries to devote 0.7% of their gross national income each year to official development assistance. What’s more, these same rich countries have yet to honor their 2009 pledge to provide developing countries with at least $100 billion a year to finance the impacts of global warming.

How can you take part in this multi-stakeholder campaign?

• Follow and share the inter-associative press conference on the Summit to be held on June 20 at 9 am in the heart of Paris.

• Stay informed via the feature article (in French), the decoding video, the joint op-ed and related events on the Summit topics that will be published and disseminated on the Oxfam France website, on social networks and by partner organizations.

• Take part in the livestream on the Twitch platform on June 17 & 18: for 36 hours, streamers, gamers and viewers will be challenged to raise awareness among users of the Twitch ecosystem, and to raise funds dedicated to crises in the Sahel.

• Sign the collective petition calling for the taxation of superprofits to implement a fair ecological transition.