Arab Coordination Group Champions Bold Financial Reform at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville
Marking 50 years of partnership and impact in 2025, the ACG also adopted a new Joint Action Plan (2025–2030) to align its efforts with key global milestones, including COP30 and the 2026 SDG Summit.
FfD4 spotlighted a widening annual financing gap of over USD 4 trillion, escalating climate shocks, and worsening debt distress. In this context, the ACG called for urgent structural reform and long-term investment strategies designed to address the needs of fragile, conflict-affected, and climate-vulnerable nations.
Bridging Regions Through South–South Cooperation
The ACG also co-hosted a strategic roundtable, 'Bridging Regions: Arab Coordination Group and Latin America and the Caribbean,' in collaboration with the OPEC Fund for International Development and CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. The event brought together finance ministers, ACG leaders, CAF officials, and representatives from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Caribbean Development Bank.
Discussions underscored the growing power of South–South cooperation to drive shared development through knowledge exchange, policy alignment and joint investment. Key areas of focus included climate adaptation, energy transition, food security, infrastructure, and economic diversification.
A Record Year of Impact
The ACG's vision for the future builds on significant momentum. In 2024, the Group disbursed US$19.6 billion across nearly 650 operations in over 90 countries, making it the world's second-largest development finance group.
These investments targeted core priorities: sustainable infrastructure, global trade, and solutions to systemic challenges such as climate change and food insecurity.
Earlier this month, at its 20th Annual Meeting in Vienna, ACG leaders reaffirmed their commitment to scaling up support for sustainable development and for vulnerable communities worldwide.
Shaping a More Inclusive Global Financial System
The ACG's joint communiqué outlines bold commitments: expanding climate-resilient investment, supporting fragile states, restoring degraded lands, unlocking private capital, promoting innovative financing and deepening South–South cooperation.
As the ACG prepares to mark its 50th Anniversary in October 2025, it looks ahead with renewed resolve to close financing gaps, advance inclusive growth and deliver tangible solutions to global challenges.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Arab Coordination Group (ACG).
About the Arab Coordination Group (ACG):
The Arab Coordination Group (ACG) is a strategic alliance that provides a coordinated response to development finance. Since its establishment in 1975, ACG has been instrumental in developing economies and communities for a better future, providing more than 13,000 development loans to over 160 countries around the globe. Comprising ten development funds, ACG is the second-largest group of development finance institutions in the world and works across the globe to support developing nations and create a lasting, positive impact.
The Group comprises the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Qatar Fund for Development and the Saudi Fund for Development.
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