At G20 finance meetings in South Africa, UN deputy chief calls for reforms that back growth, curb debt

During two-days in Johannesburg, Ms. Mohammed attended the G20 Finance Ministers meeting and the ‘Finance in Common’ Summit of National Development Banks. She also spent a day in Cape Town at a meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

She represented Secretary-General António Guterres at both stops and in her remarks in Cape Town, she conveyed the UN’s support for South Africa’s G20 presidency and emphasized the critical role of the G20 in guiding the global economy and improving prospects for sustainable development.

“The world is dangerously off track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” Ms. Mohammed stated. “While we have made progress on many aspects of our development agenda, we have also faced multiple setbacks, including the pandemic, new conflicts, slowing global growth, and escalating borrowing costs.”

Ms. Mohammed highlighted the need for proactive measures to support developing countries overwhelmed by debt service, expand development finance, and create a stronger global financial safety net. She stressed the importance of fairer and more efficient tax systems, noting that robust fiscal systems drive economic growth, alleviate poverty, and reduce inequalities.

In Cape Town, Ms. Mohammed acknowledged the challenging global economic environment, with projected GDP growth falling below pre-pandemic levels and developing countries struggling to converge with richer nations.

She outlined three key actions for the G20: strengthening multilateral development banks, adopting a comprehensive approach to the debt crisis, and enhancing the global financial safety net with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at its core.

“We need an international financial architecture that can support economies to grow, liberating them from a vicious cycle where high debt leads to low investment, low investment to low growth, and low growth back to high debt,” she emphasized.

The UN deputy chief also engaged with ministers and leaders of international financial institutions and development banks to align efforts ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, scheduled for June 30 to July 3, 2025, in Sevilla, Spain.

She underscored the critical role of this conference in renewing the global financing framework and achieving the 2030 Agenda, urging support for ambitious proposals to elevate public development banks and reform the international financial architecture.

Addressing the challenge of domestic resource mobilization, Ms. Mohammed highlighted the $4 trillion annual financing gap for sustainable development and the critical role of domestic public finance.

“Domestic public finance is essential for financing the Sustainable Development Goals, increasing equity, and strengthening macroeconomic stability,” she said, and called for future-ready tax policies to ensure fair global taxation and the importance of international tax cooperation to combat tax avoidance and illicit financial flows.

Ms. Mohammed noted that many developing countries have significant unmet tax potential and have invested in tax reforms to unlock this potential. She emphasized the need for sustained investment in capacity development based on country needs and priorities. “Strengthening tax systems requires sustained investment in capacity development based on country needs and priorities,” she stated.

The upcoming conference in Sevilla presents a pivotal moment to turn commitments into actions and build a fairer, more effective international tax system. “The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development offers a pivotal moment to turn commitments for domestic tax reforms into actions, and make tax systems more fair, transparent, efficient, and effective,” Ms. Mohammed remarked.

In conclusion, the deputy UN chief urged the G20 to lead these reforms, emphasizing that with the right political will, the relationship between finance and development can be transformed from a vicious cycle into a virtuous one.

“With the right reforms, and with sufficient political will, we can transform the relationship between finance and development from a vicious cycle into a virtuous one. This is the promise of South Africa’s G20 presidency – and of your leadership,” she concluded.