Ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, countries negotiated a draft outcomes document for further discussion and adoption. Developed countries however argued against a paragraph in the text that would commit governments to try to create an international debt architecture under the U.N. that would give global south countries an equal seat at the table. According to Devex, facilitators offered a new version that reinstated the debt section, but watered down the language on how hard the countries would work to address debt sustainability. The draft does, however, provide for the initiation of a process at the UN to “close gaps” in the debt architecture — something developing countries have long been arguing for. It also calls for the “streamlining and consolidation” of existing debt databases into a single global debt data registry within the World Bank. It did not specify a plan to create a new mechanism for debt instead leaving it to the G20 Common Framework to address.
