Scaling up for which countries? The allocation issue: Taking vulnerability into account

As part of the preparations for the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), scheduled to take place in Seville from June 30 to July 3, 2025, the United Nations hosted the second preparatory committee in New York from December 3 to 6, 2024. On this occasion, FERDI organized two side events:

• Scaling up for which countries? The allocation issue : Taking vulnerability into account
• Which metrics for development finance? - Making the TOSSD useful for guiding allocation and ensuring accountability

The first of these events focused on considering vulnerability in the allocation of concessional resources. 

Structural vulnerability with respect to external or natural shocks, either economic, climatic or societal, is a crucial issue for many developing countries, generating need for finance.

International advocacy is becoming increasingly strong to gain recognition of this major issue and propose to take structural vulnerability into account in allocating concessional resources. 

An important step forward has been the recent adoption of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) by the UN General Assembly, which explicitly calls on donors, in particular multilateral development banks (MDBs), to use countries' structural vulnerability in their allocations.

Objectives

The panel examined why and how structural vulnerability can be considered in the process of allocation of concessional funds by MDBs, and how a multidimensional index can be used effectively to make the global development financing system fairer and more consistent.

It also considered what are the tools to drive private development finance in the direction of poor and vulnerable countries.  

Co-organized by Nepal, France and FERDI, the side event addressed this question by giving the floor to representatives of poor and vulnerable countries particularly concerned, to high level member states representatives  of at the UN, as well as representatives of donors, to exchange their views on how the international approach to development financing has evolved to effectively address vulnerability.  

It was moderated by Ferdi, relying on recent work on the measurement of structural vulnerability and its use for the allocation of international development assistance. 

With:

• Pr. Patrick Guillaumont, President of FERDI
• H.E. Lok Bahadur Thapa, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, Chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of LDC and Vice-Chair of ECOSOC 
• H.E. Tiémoko Moriko, Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire to the United Nations
• H. E. Mouctar Abakar, Permanent Representative of Chad to the United Nations
• Vahinala Raharinirina,  Former Minister of Environment in Madagascar and Senior Fellow at FERDI 
• Susanna Wolf, Head of LDC Unit at Office of the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS)
• Ruth Kattumuri, Senior Director of Economic, Youth and Sustainable Development Directorate at the Commonwealth Secretariat (online)
• Sabrina Aubert,  Deputy Director at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs 

Moderator : Bruno Cabrillac, Executive Director of FERDI     

Other event: