Cameron Pledges Billions to ‘Accelerate’ UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UK’s foreign secretary wants new sources of finance to respond internationally to U.N. efforts on climate change, biodiversity and inclusion.

Britain's former Prime Minister, David Cameron, leaves 10, Downing Street after being appointed Foreign Secretary in a Cabinet reshuffle in London on Nov. 13, 2023. Carl Court/Getty Images

The UK is to help “unlock billions” to “accelerate” U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, David Cameron has announced.

On Tuesday, the former prime minister and now Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Lord Cameron wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the UK was positioning itself to expand and reform the way U.N. SDGs are funded.

Lord Cameron wrote that the UK “will prioritise championing reforms to unlock billions more in 2024 from Multilateral Development Banks to help achieve the SDGs.”

He said that he is working with the international development minister Andrew Mitchell to “deliver this priority.”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a 15-year global framework to achieve the goals of ending poverty, protecting the planet, and improving the “lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.”

The agenda was adopted by all 193 U.N. members back in 2015. The U.N. says that between $3—$4.5 trillion per year “needs to be mobilised if we hope to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

In 2020, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, urged world leaders to “Build Back Better” and commit to a “Great Reset“ to achieve the SDGs.

The FCDO did not respond to The Epoch Times request to expand on Lord Cameron’s statement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in a high-level meeting on financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the United Nations on Sept. 24, 2018. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

‘No Longer Possible For a Country to Determine its Future Alone’

As soon as he returned to the Cabinet after seven years in November., Lord Cameron called for new ways of leveraging extra taxpayers cash and private funds for aid, which Cameron says could “unlock hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.”

In 2015, the Conservative government led by Lord Cameron passed the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act which was supposed to enshrine the 0.7 percent target but in 2021, the government, then led by Boris Johnson, reduced the target to 0.5 percent of GDP.

The UK government released a FCDO White Paper in November called “International Development in a Contested World: Ending Extreme Poverty and Tackling Climate Change.”

It said that the UK can “accelerate progress” on the SDGs by 2030.

The paper’s summary said that “it is no longer possible, if it ever was, for a country to determine its future alone. Climate change does not respect national boundaries, nor do pandemics or conflicts. International development has become both more vital and more difficult.”

It said that the UK government will “take a whole-of-government approach to deliver our strategic vision for international development to 2030 to end extreme poverty, tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, and accelerate sustainable economic growth to enable countries to achieve self-reliance.”

It said that it will work toward a more “inclusive” approach and that it “is right” that development is to be increasingly designed and delivered by local people and organisations, especially  “marginalised groups.”

The paper said that new sources of finance, in addition to policy reforms and institutional strengthening, are required to “deliver the SDGs and respond to climate change and biodiversity loss.”

It noted that multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the World Bank are “one of the largest sources of development finance” and that they represent “strong value for money to the UK taxpayer.”

It said that the UK and its partners must also use Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets, also known as its overseas aid budget, to “unlock larger volumes from other sources.”

It added that a “quantum leap is urgently needed in the volume of international finance and private sector capital that flows to low-and middle-income countries.”

In his foreword to the white paper, Lord Cameron said: “This destination remains unchanged. But our approach needs to adapt to new realities.”

“Today’s answer cannot be about rich countries ‘doing development’ to others. We need to work together as partners, shaping narratives that developing countries own and deliver. Development cannot be a closed shop, where we try to help other countries and communities without heeding their vision for the future,” he added.

BII

In December, the government released a report on the role Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) play in developing private markets in low-and-middle-income countries by “pioneering new and emerging industries, promoting positive change through investment activities, and stimulating wider private-sector investment to develop markets.”

It said that British International Investment (BII), the development finance institution of the UK government, was a “leader amongst DFIs in investing in the riskiest places with the highest development needs.”

Approximately 70 percent of BII’s portfolio is in equity investments, and over half of that (57 percent)  is in Africa. BII also has a toolkit for “tackling unconscious bias.”

One example of a major project includes BII’s $60 million loan programme partnership with Nigeria’s largest commercial bank, Access Bank.

BII estimates the loan programme will stimulate African trade volumes by $90 million and that the programme will directly contribute to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure).

It added that this will also improve “inclusion” by “strengthening female participation and leadership in business.”