The fourth International Conference on Development Financing (FFD4), officially opened on Monday in Seville, with the aim of the financing reform at all levels, in particular by promoting the reform of international financial architecture and by taking up the challenges that slow the investment.
A Tunisian delegation led by the head of the government, Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri arrived Sunday morning, in this city in southern Spain, to participate in this economic conclave, whose work will continue until July 3, 2025. The Minister of Finance, Michket Slama Khaldi and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians abroad, as well as the Economy department and planning, take part in this delegation.
Zenzri participated from June 30 to July 1, 2025, in Seville, in the work of the FFD4, on behalf of the President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed. On the 1st day of the conference, the bilateral interviews with the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamed Mustapha, Prime Minister, Mustapha Kamel Madbouli, the director general of the International Organization for Migration (OIM), Prime Minister, Prime Minister, Prime Minister Nadir, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD), Odile Renaud – Basso.
The FFD4 must be marked by the formal adoption of the agreement on the financing of development concluded on June 25, 2025 between the member states of the United Nations, without the United States. This is a renewed reference framework to mobilize funding in favor of sustainable development and respond to a need for development estimated at $ 4,000 billion per year, which are particularly past developing countries.
The Seville Forum must make it possible to formulate specific commitments to support the achievement of sustainable development objectives (SDGs) by 2030.
According to the UN, today, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more to repay their debts than to health or education. In addition, developing countries pay their debts at much higher rates than rich countries, two to four times more and these costs explode in times of crisis, which hinders these countries in development in development.
For Tunisia, the outstanding its public debt reached in 2024, 135 billion dinars, in 2024, representing 81.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP). It expects an outstanding of its public debt of 147.4 billion dinars in 2025 (80.5%).
The Tunisian state has adopted a new policy in recent years, favoring the use of inner debt to the detriment of the external debt. Thus, the proportion of the interior debt at the outstanding public debt increased from 39.6% in 2021, to 53.8% in 2024. In 2025, this proportion will exceed 58%, according to the forecasts of the 2025 finance law.
The public debt services amounted to 24.8 billion dinars in 2024, up 19.5%compared to 2023. The principal of the debt exceeded 18.5 billion dinars, marking an increase of 24%, while interest has evolved by 7.8%, from 5.8 billion dinars in 2023 to almost 6.3 billion dinars in 2024.
Tunisia is preparing a new 2026-2030 development plan, drawn up as part of a new approach starting from the local level to reach the central, while the previous plans were focused on a central system presenting proposals and development guidelines. It intervenes in a political and institutional framework based under the sign “construction and construction” and based on the realization of the objectives of the Constitution, in particular the social role of the State and the importance of the local and regional components in the proposal of development policies.
The FFD4 constitutes the only forum where the leaders of all governments, as well as international and regional organizations, financial and commercial institutions, businesses, civil society and the United Nations system, meet at the highest level, and thus strengthens international cooperation.
The Seville summit will mark the fourth major UN conference on development financing, after those of Monterrey in 2002, which adopted the consensus of Monterrey which defined the priorities of financing for development, of Doha in 2008 which adopted the Declaration of Doha on the financing of development, and of Addis Ababa in 2015, which adopted the Addis Abbeba action program.
