Dear Forus members and colleagues, 

As the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) approaches, Forus is proud to bring a 30+ member delegation from over 20 countries to Seville, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July 2025. Together, we aim to make this moment count: pushing for bold commitments, structural reforms, and the meaningful inclusion of civil society – understanding and protection of our enabling environment - in reshaping global finance. 

Below is a list of upcoming side events we are co-organising or supporting, followed by key campaigns and mobilisations we are engaged in. We warmly invite you to join us in advancing justice, equity, and civil society voices at FfD4 and beyond. Feel free to share this with your networks and we hope to see many of you in Sevilla! 

• 📢Find our press release with Forus key asks for #FfD4 in light of the Compromiso de Sevilla and the network’s recommendations: Financing for development conference: “What we need are bold commitments” 

• 📰Read the Op-Ed: Time to redesign global development finance - By Sarah Strack, Forus Director and Christelle Kalhoule, Forus Chair 

• 🎧Find the Forus Resource hub and special podcast series for #FfD4 

• ✍️Sign the by the Civil Society Manifesto for Global Justice by the the Portuguese NGDO Platform. 

• 📖 Find the INDICO 2025 report ahead of #FfD4 which provides a global snapshot of how countries act both within and beyond their borders 

• 📲 Find our social media pack for #FfD4

📅 Forus FfD4 Side Events 

🔹 Strengthening Relations Between Public Development Banks and Civil Society to Promote People-Centred and Locally-Led Development 
📅 Wednesday, 2 July 2025 | 🕝 14:30–16:00 CEST 
📍 Side Event 5 – FIBES Seville Exhibition and Conference Centre 
 
Partners: Forus, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), World Bank, Asia Development Bank (ADB) , Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGO), Associação Brasileira de ONGs (Abong), Bond, Pakistan Development Allliance (PDA)

This session will explore how Public Development Banks (PDBs) and civil society can co-create finance strategies that are rooted in local knowledge and democratic participation. With PDBs managing over $23 trillion in assets globally, their potential impact on the SDGs is enormous, but only if their strategies are aligned with the priorities and lived realities of communities. Building on the findings of Forus’ new mapping study and insights from global civil society leaders, this session will highlight successful models of civil society engagement, and present PDB initiatives such as CIVIC, the World Bank’s new facility for embedding citizen voice into development systems. The event will call for PDBs to reimagine their operational models by centering transparency, local ownership, and sustainable transformation, reinforcing civil society as a strategic partner in development finance. 

🔹 Beyond GDP: Rethinking Finance for Sustainable Development 
📅 Wednesday, 2 July 2025 | 🕓 16:30–18:00 CEST 
📍 Side Event 16 – FIBES Seville Exhibition and Conference Centre 
 
Partners: La Coordinadora, Futuro en Común, Oxfam, Forus 
 
A critical discussion of metrics, values and priorities—reframing economic policy away from extractive growth and towards sustainable, rights-based outcomes. As the world grapples with intersecting crises (from rising inequality and climate breakdown to democratic erosion and shrinking civic space), this side event calls for a bold rethinking of how development is defined, measured, and financed. Co-organised by La Coordinadora, Futuro en Común, Forus, and Oxfam International, the session will challenge the dominance of GDP as the main yardstick for progress and explore alternative metrics that prioritise human rights, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and care work. This conversation aims to shape a new financing paradigm, one that centers people and planet over profit, and reclaims public resources in service of collective, more just futures. 

🔹 From Crisis to Collective Action: Ensuring Solidarity, Accountability, and Transparency in a Fragile Financial Landscape 
📅 Thursday, 3 July 2025 | 🕧 12:30–14:00 CEST 
📍 Side Event 16 – FIBES Seville Exhibition and Conference Centre 
 
Partners: TAP Network, CIVICUS, Ford Foundation, Oxfam, Transparency International, and Forus 
 
This side event at FFD4 will spotlight the critical role of civil society in safeguarding transparency, accountability, and democratic governance. Co-hosted by CIVICUS, the Ford Foundation, Forus, the TAP Network, and Transparency International, the session will examine how funding cuts, rising military expenditure, and political repression are threatening the viability of civil society and the delivery of SDG 16. Featuring testimony from frontline organisations and high-level stakeholders, the discussion will unpack the consequences of sidelining civic actors in global development processes, while showcasing civil society's resilience and continued leadership in defending public services and anti-corruption efforts. As calls for a more inclusive and rights-based financial architecture grow louder, this event will offer concrete pathways to sustain civil society participation, catalyse collective action, and push back against systemic erosion of democratic accountability. 

✊🏽 Key Campaigns and Mobilisations Around FfD4 

🔸 The Portuguese NGDO Platform hereby invites you to sign the Civil Society Manifesto for Global Justice.  
📢 Sign the Manifesto 

Various Portuguese civil society organisations unite in a manifesto promoted by the Portuguese NGDO Platform, calling for a change of course. The manifesto is open to the endorsement of all civil society entities wishing to contribute to a more just and effective international cooperation, grounded in human rights.  

🔸 Discover the INDICO 2025 ahead of #FfD4 which provides a global snapshot of how countries act both within and beyond their borders. Organisations such as Civicus, Eurodad, Reality of Aid Africa, and WEDO reveal in the INDICO report the inconsistencies of a failed model. Civil society around the world demands that financing support the transitions needed to guarantee rights and protect the planet in a fair and sustainable way. Four diverse platforms have joined forces to promote this tool: La Coordinadora de Organizaciones para el Desarrollo, Forus, Futuro en Común, and REEDES. The work behind the Coherence Index and its contribution to the debate on development financing is an invitation to change our perspective in order to change the world. 

📢 Find INDICO 

🔸 ODA Campaign: "Reverse the Cuts. Rethink the System. Stand for Justice." 
Led by Eurodad, ActionAid, CONCORD Europe, and Oxfam. Support the campaign to reverse ODA cuts and ensure long-term, flexible funding for civil society. 
📢 Sign the petition here: Reverse the Cuts 

🔸 We Stand with Billions, Not Billionaires 
Forus is backing this global campaign demanding debt cancellation, fair taxation, and a democratic overhaul of global finance. Join the push to turn words into action at FfD4. Forus members, PDA, ADA and Janic took part of the Asia campaign launch on 18 June. 

🔸 Era of Justice Campaign
Forus supports the Era of Justice campaign - a call to the public in Europe to join forces and support the global movement for a fairer, more equitable world. It is about the  interconnections between economic justice, climate justice and gender justice, and aims to mobilise European citizens - and in particular young people - to take actions and hold European leaders to account.   

🔸FfD4 Feminist Forum & Civil Society Forum | 27–29 June 2025 
Ahead of the official FfD4 programme, Forus will be active in the Civil Society Forum and the Feminist Forum —amplifying the voices of national platforms and community-led movements in global decision-making spaces. 

🔸Informal Networking Gathering around FfD4 for Civil Society Networks | 30 June from 16:00 - 18:00, at the AC Hotel Sevilla Forum 

Register to attend this informal gathering amongst for colleagues across many civil society networks attending the FfD4 Conference. This networking session is co-sponsored by the Transparency, Accountability & Participation (TAP) Network, Asia Development Alliance (ADA), CIVICUS, Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding, Forus, and Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). 

📢 Press & Media Contacts 

For interviews, quotes, or media collaborations, please contact: 

• Bibbi Abruzzini, Communications & Campaigns 
  📩 [email protected] | 📞 +32 (0) 471 219 641 

• Marianne Buenaventura Goldman, FfD Project Coordinator 
  📩 [email protected] 

🌐 www.forus-international.org 

Please share these opportunities widely across your networks!