Centring women’s economic empowerment in the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development

In 2025, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) will assess and advance the progress made in the implementation of the commitments of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the central guiding framework for financing sustainable development. The conference addresses new and emerging issues, as well as the urgent need to finance the full implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support reform of the international financial architecture.

Existing international financial architecture falls short of adequately supporting the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment. This gap particularly affects women’s economic rights and development, which is a prerequisite to their overall empowerment. Achieving SDG 5 requires innovative financing solutions; ambitious reforms of global economic governance, national fiscal, monetary, and trade policies; as well as multilateral and multi-stakeholder action.

This paper aims to help governments, policymakers, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society to integrate women’s economic empowerment priorities into the process of FfD4 and the subsequent implementation of its outcome, by offering substantive analysis and targeted recommendations introducing a gender lens to key financial policy solutions. It draws on extensive insights from expert background papers, reports of the UN Secretary General, the agreed conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women, and the blueprints of Generation Equality’s Action Coalition on Economic Justice and Rights.