CAF in Seville 2025

The event will examine how developing countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, can turn their strategic natural resources—such as critical minerals, biodiversity, and agricultural goods—into drivers of smart, inclusive, and sustainable industrialization. Through dialogue among public, private, and international actors, it will explore investment opportunities, trade diversification, and local value addition, while highlighting the vital role of regional cooperation and development banks in fostering more equitable and resilient growth.

This session will explore how commercial debt swaps can become a key tool for developing countries to finance their commitments to nature, climate, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without increasing their debt burden. Drawing on real-world experiences and the growing demand for sustainable finance, the discussion will address opportunities and challenges for scaling up debt swaps, the role of development banks, insurers, investors, and donors, as well as the need for technical assistance and improved risk mitigation mechanisms to drive meaningful impact in climate resilience and social development.

This event will showcase how sustainable public procurement can serve as a strategic policy tool to mobilize domestic resources, promote inclusive growth, and drive the shift toward a circular, low-carbon economy. With procurement accounting for a significant share of global GDP, the session will explore how aligning public spending with sustainability goals can translate into high-impact outcomes for climate resilience, resource efficiency, and social equity. Through a multi-stakeholder approach, the discussion will highlight needed reforms, best practices, and capacity-building strategies to improve procurement systems—particularly in developing countries—ensuring transparency, effectiveness, and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.

This event will highlight the key role of quasi-sovereign actors—such as national development banks and subnational governments—in mobilizing resources for sustainable development across Latin America and other emerging economies. Drawing on successful case studies and new research, the discussion will explore enabling conditions, institutional capacities, and innovative financial instruments such as thematic bonds (green, social, or SDG-linked) that can catalyze investments aligned with climate and development goals. The session will also address how technical assistance, multilateral development banks, and anchor investors can scale replicable solutions and help reshape the international financial architecture from the ground up.

This event will highlight how regional multilateral development banks can play a central role in reshaping the international financial architecture by delivering innovative, locally tailored solutions that support sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development. Drawing on concrete experiences and South-South cooperation, the session will explore how these institutions strengthen capacities, mobilize capital, promote green finance instruments, and foster strategic partnerships with governments, national development banks, and private actors to bridge structural financing gaps and accelerate productive and environmental transformations.

This event will address the urgent need to invest in care systems as a key strategy to reduce inequalities, boost women’s economic participation, and build more inclusive and resilient economies. Through a multistakeholder approach, it will highlight the social and economic benefits of expanding care policies, services, and infrastructure, as well as the opportunities to mobilize resources through progressive tax reforms, international cooperation, and innovative financing mechanisms. The session will showcase best practices and promote collaboration among governments, development banks, civil society, and the private sector to position care as a priority within national and global development financing frameworks.

Speaker:
Alejandra Claros, Secretary General of CAF

Venue: FIBES, Room 3

Co-organizers:

This event will address the urgent need to embed climate and ecological resilience at the heart of global financial reform and the development finance agenda. Through a multi-stakeholder dialogue uniting civil society, the private sector, and public representatives, the session will reframe climate finance as a core component of development, enhance collaboration across sectors, and propose concrete mechanisms to fund a just transition. It will emphasize the role of instruments such as green bonds, Special Drawing Rights, progressive taxation, and international cooperation to redirect financial flows toward inclusive, resilient economies aligned with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.