From the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4): Global South at the epicentre of Debt-driven development crises with women and girls bearing the brunt: A call for transforming international financial architecture grounded on human rights and gender equality principles
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, ARROW
The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) and the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, all have provided direction with strategic “means of implementation”.
They serve as “North Star” to advance gender equality and women’s human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Specifically, the 1995, Fourth World Conference on Women that resulted in the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, noted in particular to ‘review, adopt and maintain economic policies and development strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty.’
It also specified the need to analyse and modify macroeconomic stability programmes, structural adjustment, and the management of external debt problems in order to incorporate a gender perspective. (UN, 1995).
However, what we see in reality are rising levels of indebtedness, and debt distress within the Global South countries. As a result, austerity measures and the increasing privatisation of public services, deepening inequalities with a disproportionate impact on women, who are already in an economic disadvantage as a result of structural gender inequalities.
A dysfunctional International Financial Architecture!
Countries in the Global South are increasingly facing challenges to mobilise resources for their own development as a result of the dysfunctional international financial architecture that perpetuates perennial debt cycles in these countries.
The debt distress is resulting in austerity measures such as major cuts in public services, access to health, education and social protection, particularly impacting diverse women’s rights and gender equality.
A look at finance data points and hard evidence: Vicious cycle of debt burden borne by countries in the Global South!
In 2023, total debt servicing costs for all Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) reached a record high of $1.4 trillion, driven by rapidly accumulating external debt over the last decade, interest rates at a two-decade high, and currency depreciation.
Principal repayments rose by 1% to $950.9 billion, while interest payments increased by 37.1% to $405.3 billion, both all-time highs. The total debt service to export earnings ratio rose by 1.6 points to 14.7%.
Developing countries are seeing a record-high debt servicing costs in 2023, straining low- and middle-income economies. This is compounded by a $4 trillion annual investment gap for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) achievement in developing countries. In 2024, ODA from DAC member countries (30 Member Countries) declined by 7.1% in real terms—the first drop in five years—reaching only $212.1 billion (0.33% of combined GNI). (SDG Report 2024 and 2025)
The Impact- 3.8 billion people remain unprotected from any social protection!
Global poverty reduction is virtually at a standstill. Around 9% of people worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2022. While social protection coverage has reached a milestone of covering half the world’s population, low-income countries have shown almost no improvement since 2015, with overage rates of 9.7% having hardly increased since 2015, with the poorest within these countries left behind.
The Impact: Progress towards gender equality and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls in all their diversities has either stagnated or made little progress… None of them will be achieved by 2030 for sure!
Thirty years since the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and ICPD Programme of Action, gender equality remains an unachievable goal.
Legal barriers persist, restricting women’s health, education, and employment opportunities, failing to adequately address harmful practices such as child marriages and gender-based violence.
Two pregnant persons die every minute. 700 women die unnecessarily from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
To reach the global target of 70 per 100,000 live births, nearly 700,000 maternal deaths need to be prevented between 2024 and 2030 – AN INDICATOR OF ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES.
Only 56.3% of women aged 15 to 49 who are married or in a union have full decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to data from 78 countries (SDG 5.6). Without reproductive autonomy, there is no productive autonomy!
In Asia and the Pacific, household health expenditures (indicator 3.8.2) remain high, placing families under financial strain and limiting access to essential services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the percentage of people in South-East Asia spending more than 10% of their total household income on health has increased from 13.1% in 2010 to 16.1% in 2019.
The age of polycrises: Multiple challenges affecting the Global South simultaneously Climate Crisis a reality which further exacerbates debt burden.
The climate crises are becoming increasingly severe – just the Asia-Pacific region alone, as part of the Global South, accounts for 40% of global natural disaster events. These disasters further increase the burden of unpaid domestic work for women, who must invest more hours in securing water, food, and energy for cooking and heating the homes.
The closing or underfunding public services such as health centres, schools, and water provision facilities, due to debt crises and increasing debt service payments, is further exacerbated during extreme climate events, and natural disasters. Simply put, in the context of disasters, health services are just not accessible for women and girls.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is foundational to achieving Gender Equality!
Moving forward, respecting the rights of women and girls would mean avoiding the jargonistic and instrumental approach to gender equality, Instead, we must address the structural obstacles head-on.
If we genuinely want to advance gender equality, we need to get started on improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in all their diversities as the base foundational start, ensuring financial resources are adequately allocated. I mean, did we even find one mention of SRHR in the FfD outcome document?
It’s time for a reform of the International Financial Architecture and enhanced global cooperation under UN auspices!
The current international financial architecture is not working. It fails to guarantee long-term, flexible, inclusive, equitable financing for development. We urgently need the political will to advance systemic reforms by creditor governments, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Multilateral Development Banks (MDB), and Member States from the Global South collaborating towards a fair financing model that will work for everyone.
Most urgent is the establishment of a Multilateral Legal Framework to Tackle the Global Debt Crisis, and Governance Reform of International Financial Institutions (IFI) and MDBs, which includes membership from Global South countries and civil society, all under the auspices of the UN.
A GENUINE response is required to address economic, social, and environmental challenges that the world, particularly countries in the global South are facing, tackling the multiplicity of interconnected polycrises.
A holistic approach is required to address the interconnected global POLYCRISIS rather than treating them as separate occurrences. These have to be addressed holistically and not in silos of debt, climate, pandemic, conflict, and ultimately “crises.”
The call is for a systemic approach allowing for a fundamental restructuring of the global economy and financial system, that will benefit all countries equally and equitably. Only then can Financing for Development truly work for all, especially women and girls in all their diversities.
References
- Marina Durano, Nicole Bidegain Ponte. 2017. A Feminist Perspective on the Follow-Up Process for Financing for Development.
- Feminist Perspectives and Recommendations on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. Side event discussions held in April 2025.
- SDG Progress reports 2024, and 2025
- Note: The blog draws on the presentation made at the Financing for Development Feminist Forum, held on 27th June 2025
