FfD4 Dispatch: Debt, Art, and the Struggle for Justice

Debt is devouring our future. The 50 countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis are now spending 15.5% of their government revenue on external debt payments — the highest level in more than three decades.
This is not just an economic crisis; it’s a systemic injustice. The global financial system continues to divert resources away from education, health, and climate resilience, funneling them instead to creditors. Communities across the Global South are organizing to resist.

What happened in Sevilla?

From June 30 to July 3, 2025, more than 1,000 civil society organizations gathered — both inside and outside the official venue — for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla, Spain. The conference was widely seen as a critical opportunity to transform the global financial architecture amid intersecting crises. What we got instead was a weak and disappointing outcome: the “Compromiso de Sevilla,” described by many as a “missed opportunity” and “a gift to the status quo.”

What ESCR-Net demanded instead

By centering human rights, rejecting austerity, and democratizing global governance, we can transform the financial architecture to redress systemic inequities and ensure our right to the future.

At FfD4, ESCR-Net called for bold action, including:

→ Cancel unsustainable, illegitimate debt.
→ Establish a UN Sovereign Debt Convention.
→ Reject austerity and prioritize gender-transformative fiscal policies.
→ Ensure Greater Democratic Governance and Stop Corporate Capture
→ Endorse a UN Tax Convention to curb illicit flows and global tax abuse.

From June 29 to July 1, ESCR-Net co-organized and participated in On Debt Row: The Impact of Debt on Lives in the Global South, an art exhibition hosted at the AC Hotel Sevilla Forum.

The exhibition — co-organized with APWLD, Debt for Climate Europe, and artists from the Philippines and Argentina — explored how debt functions as a tool of political, economic, and cultural control. Through murals, installations, and performance, the exhibition transformed the technical language of debt into a powerful visual and emotional experience.

“Art isn’t just about making something beautiful,” said Len-Len of The O Home art collective. “It’s about making something that helps us heal, resist, and speak up.”

Ahead of Sevilla: Movements demand systemic change

 On June 10, over 100 ESCR-Net members and allies joined the webinar Transforming the Global Financial Architecture to Guarantee Debt and Climate Justice.

Speakers from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and beyond exposed how debt, austerity, and militarism deepen inequality and ecological destruction. But they also emphasized that alternatives already exist — feminist, Indigenous, and community-led economies rooted in solidarity, care, and regeneration.

These insights laid the foundation for the political demands we carried to Sevilla.

The struggle continues

FfD4’s outcome document, the “Compromiso de Sevilla,” failed to meet the moment. But across struggles and regions, communities continue to organize for alternatives grounded in solidarity and care for people and the planet.

Thanks for reading. For more information about our collective work, please don’t hesitate to contact us at communications@escr-net.org.