An outcome document was negotiated prior to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development currently underway in Seville this week, thanks to compromises struck by 192 countries, showing that multilateralism is still alive. The Trump administration had reportedly proposed over 400 amendments to a leaked draft. Proposed amendments include replacing references to the Sustainable Development Goals and replacing them with “responsible development” goals, and blocking efforts to close the $4 trillion annual financing gap for the SDGs. The US then withdrew from the conference outright. However, Carsten Staur, head of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee speaking to Devex at the sidelines of the conference stated: “I think the fact that … negotiators could do this compromise at this point in time is a testament to the fact that we are still working together. That the world may not have the same degree of integration that we had five years ago, but we … still try to work together.”
