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Friday, April 11, 2025

“Public Development Banks must prioritize people and the planet, not profit.” This was the resounding message from ESCR-Net members, who joined over 400 organizations worldwide in urging Public Development Banks (PDBs) to take meaningful steps toward just and sustainable development in line with human rights obligations.

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As over 500 PDBs gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, from February 26-28, 2025 for the fifth edition of the Finance in Common Summit, ESCR-Net members amplified demands for a financial system that truly addresses the needs of communities facing the harsh realities of rising inequality, debt crisis, and escalating climate emergency.  

Co-hosted by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with support from the  Agence française de développement (AFD), the summit drew over 2000 delegates to discuss  “Fostering Infrastructure and Finance for Just and Sustainable Growth.” Yet, despite the urgency of the moment, many civil society organizations (CSOs) left the summit disappointed as the conversations continued to prioritize private-sector investments over public-centered solutions.

ESCR-Net contributed to a joint CSO Declaration calling on PBDs to vouch for a just, equal, sustainable, and robust financial system to enable states to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights for all and address global inequalities. The declaration further demands the banks to support reforms to the global financial architecture that facilitate debt cancellation and restructuring, prioritize national development, and support more democratic standards and norms including by adopting a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt. The declaration also emphasizes the need to uphold human rights by ensuring that Free, Prior, and Informed consent (FPIC) is rigorously obtained in development projects affecting Indigenous People, prioritize community leadership in decision-making processes, and take measures to prevent and address harassment and violence against human rights and environmental defenders. Lastly, the declaration calls on banks to immediately commit to phasing out fossil fuels and redirect climate finance to support mitigation and adaptation measures and a just, renewable energy transition aligned with principles of transparency, accountability, community leadership, human rights, and gender equality.  

 Despite strong recommendations in the declaration, many of the solutions advanced at the summit prioritize private sector financing and investment as the solution to economic, financial, and climate crises. CSOs noted that these approaches often deepen sovereign debt crises, further straining vulnerable economies. In a world where over 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt servicing and repayment than on health and education, PBDs emphasis on neoliberal debt frameworks–favoring loans over grants–only perpetuates cycles of inequality.

FIC is a space for CSOs to talk about financing these important issues, such as just energy transition, climate justice and debt, from a human rights perspective. However, at all stages of the event, the focus was on financing without a human face, emphasizing tapping into private capital that leans towards profit rather than rights. Public development banks are problematically focused on private capital as the main source of finances, even when these solutions are very expensive and exacerbate rights violations.
— John Mwebe – Recourse

Additionally, the lack of meaningful opportunities for CSOs, communities, and Indigenous peoples to participate and contribute to conversations during the Summit leads PDBs to make decisions and commitments that do not adequately address the needs of communities most impacted by debt and climate crisis.

The Summit had a political grandstanding because they had closed door meetings not accessible to us – yet probably they would have been the spaces where we were supposed to engage constructively rather than occupying seats just to listen to their speeches.
— Mela Chiponda

PDBs must commit to mobilizing public finance for investment in transformative projects that address and mitigate the climate crisis, decrease debt burdens, and protect human rights. This requires a decisive break from extractive neoliberal policies and a shift toward a renewed global financing framework that prioritizes human rights, environmental sustainability, and locally led development. The South Africa G20 Presidency and the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development present crucial opportunities for PBDs to help rethink the global financial architecture and promote a financing for development agenda rooted in equality, human rights, and sustainability.

In their final communique, the banks recognized and acknowledged the role of CSOs in making finance and investments work for human rights. However, as our members have argued, genuine progress requires concrete actions beyond acknowledgment.