Reform of the International Financial Architecture and C20 Working Group 1 on Fair, Inclusive and Anti-Racist Economies

The current international financial architecture, established after the Second World War, has been ineffective in dealing with rapidly evolving development challenges and facilitating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Designed by and for developed countries at a time when issues such as climate change, social inequality and systemic crises received little attention, the current system is failing to meet the needs created by rising climate risks, growing geopolitical tensions, widening disparities in income and wealth, and deep-rooted gender and racial prejudices.

Least developed countries need fair financing that does not create more debt or conditionalities, but that focuses on historical reparations. The type of financing that allows progress towards an economic transformation that is sustainable, inclusive and decolonizing. Currently, this could be achieved through reform of multilateral financial institutions, sovereign debt relief and resolution, and a new international tax architecture. This statement combines T20 and C20 priorities and recommendations across these three topics.