On Tuesday, February 11, in New York City, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR); Oxfam Mexico; CESR; ICRICT and the Center for International Cooperation of the New York University (NYU) convened a high-level discussion under the title "Bringing the Fight Against Inequality to FfD4 Discussions: How to Achieve Tax and Debt Justice”. The event brought together representatives from Latin America and Africa, and explored the critical need to advance on progressive fiscal reforms to address global inequality, focusing on fair taxation, sovereign debt restructuring and economic justice. 

Notwithstanding an explicit pushback against multilateralism derived from recent political changes, critical global negotiations regarding the financing of economic, social and cultural rights in the Global South are unfolding in parallel: the 4th Financing for Development Conference and the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. Given this complex scenario, as eloquently highlighted by Poliana Garcia, Project Coordinator for International Tax Cooperation at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, enhancing the articulation between African and Latin American States through the common understanding of shared priorities, realities and negotiating strategies is now more urgent than ever. Without a unified strategy, international negotiations risk continuing to favour wealthier nations, marginalizing developing economies and deepening global financial imbalances.

A shared diagnosis between all panelists was based on the need to strengthen States’ fiscal space to guarantee the funding of transformative public policy to tackle inequalities. In that regard, two main issues emerged as the most significant regional threats undermining the financial capacity of African and Latin American States to achieve sustainable development: regressive fiscal systems in the case of Latin America and the existential threat that the unsustainable debt crises poses upon African nations.

Regarding the first point, many developing countries have tax systems that rely heavily on income and consumption taxes, disproportionately burdening lower-income populations, while the wealthiest contribute relatively little. As emphasized by Alexandra Haas, Executive Director of Oxfam Mexico, taxing both income and wealth is essential to generate revenue and to counteract the influence of corporate power in shaping economic policies. Without more equitable taxation, economic inequality will continue to widen, limiting governments’ ability to fund social protections and address urgent development imperatives. Accordingly, an approach that is gaining traction is advancing the taxation of multinational corporations on the basis of their “significant economic presence”, a principle that would curb the practice of profit shifting, where corporations exploit legal loopholes to avoid paying taxes on the countries where they generate revenue and user engagement. Such an initiative was thoroughly explored by Dr. José Antonio Ocampo, Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and the UN International Commission of Experts on Financing for Development, who also endorsed the establishment of a global asset registry to increase transparency and the reform of investment agreements to prevent corporations from using dispute settlement mechanisms to challenge progressive tax policies.

As to the issue of debt, as underscored by H.E. Dr. Agnes Mary Chimbiri-Molande, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Malawi to the UN in New York, more than half of Africa’s population currently lives in countries where debt servicing costs exceed spending on critical sectors such as health and education. This has become an insurmountable obstacle hindering  development in the region, with unsustainable repayment obligations diverting resources away from funding essential public services. The current debt infrastructure also facilitates a massive transfer of resources from the Global South to the developed countries of the Global North, reinforcing pre existing structural inequalities rooted in historical injustices, including colonial-era financial arrangements and loans taken to address the consequences of climate change; crises largely driven by the actions of wealthier nations.

While tax justice measures could help alleviate debt repayment, speakers stressed that such efforts alone are insufficient; systemic reforms are needed to provide response to current debt crises and prevent repetition in the future. One proposal is the establishment of a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, which, in the view of its proponents, would provide a more neutral space for negotiations on debt restructuring, relief and accountability under the framework of a non-lender organization such as the United Nations. 

Delving on the negotiating strategies to push this initiative forward, Ivo Miguel Rubio, First Secretary at Angola’s Permanent Mission to the UN,  emphasized that building coalitions with high-income countries that support these changes is essential to advance on a fairer framework for debt resolution. Additionally, Jorge Murillo, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN, noted how advancing progressive fiscal reforms also requires breaking down the artificial divisions between tax justice, debt sustainability, climate finance and public service funding, ensuring that economic policies support broader development and human rights commitments rather than operating in isolation.

Panellists agreed upon the need to place people, not profits, at the center of development financing discussions. On that regard, Jason Rosario Braganza, Executive Director of the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and CS FFD Mechanism, explored how non-concessional debt mechanisms, such as high interest loan provisions to the African region, have a direct impact on the material livelihoods of the most vulnerable due to the impacts of austerity measures. Coherent with such understanding and as a conclusion to the discussion, Camila Barretto Maia, Acting Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), highlighted the vital added value of integrating human rights obligations into these negotiations, particularly the maximum available resources provision and the international assistance and cooperation duties of developed countries. These obligations are anchored in an established and binding normative framework that defines specific responsibilities on economic, social and cultural rights, serving as key reference for regulation and potential accountability. Human rights are not aspirational goals but binding legal commitments that States have already agreed to uphold, and which are not subjected to changing geopolitical trends. The international financial system must therefore recognize that economic and fiscal policies should comply with existing human rights obligations.

While FfD4’s outcome, to be adopted in Seville in June, will not be the final word on these issues, it will set the course for future discussions, including the UN Tax Convention and the long-overdue reform of global debt governance. As the world looks ahead to FfD4, one thing is clear: advancing progressive fiscal reforms and addressing the systemic injustices in global debt governance are the next essential steps in the fight against inequality. The financial architecture must be restructured to ensure that economic policies serve people, rather than entrenching disparities that fuel poverty and exclusion.