Thousands of activists take to the streets demanding urgent debt cancellation ahead of global summit

Seville, Spain – Thousands of activists flooded the streets of Seville on Sunday, demanding an end to the debt crisis, ahead of the United Nations’ global development summit, the Financing for Development conference. The protest was organised by ActionAid in collaboration with other NGO partners. 

The protestors emphasised that most Global South countries are being crushed under the weight of unsustainable debt. Moreover, the current global financial system is perpetuating cycles of poverty and undermining efforts to achieve real development.   

Arthur Larok, the Secretary General of ActionAid, who participated in the march, said,   

"As we marched, we made it clear that the time for empty rhetoric is over; the world needs action on ending the debt and climate crisis. We urgently need to overhaul and transform the current global financial system, which is no longer fit for purpose. 

“It is time we called out the hypocrisy of rich nations to preach sustainable development while clinging to a broken system that extracts wealth from the Global South, fosters public cuts and excludes them from decision-making processes.  

Arthur added: “This summit presents a lifetime opportunity to address the moral failure of the countries that keep holding on to the colonial system. Over the years, we have witnessed countless pledges, endless discussions, yet a lamentable lack of tangible commitment to truly ending this debt crisis and re-establishing a bold, transformative global economic system under the United Nations." 

Over the course of this week at the Fourth Financing for Development conference, the activists vowed to maintain pressure on delegates to ensure that there is a real commitment to securing economic justice and systemic change. 

Roos Saalbrink, the Global Lead on Economic Justice at ActionAid, said “While rich countries continue to play the disappearing act and neglect their responsibility to cancel sovereign debts owed by Global South countries, millions of people are in a debt crisis and paying the price of cuts in government spending on basic public services such as education and healthcare. This is regressing hard-won gains on gender equality.   

“ActionAid has it on record that more than three-quarters of all low- and lower-middle-income countries spend more on debt servicing than they do on health. The impact of this has been untold suffering of communities marginalised by an unjust global system. We need to see systems change now.” 

[ENDS]   

Spokespeople are available for interview. ActionAid has spokespeople in Seville during FFD4. Please contact the press office at media-enquiries@actionaid.org or on +263776665065 or +44 7592 302293 to arrange.  

List of ActionAid spokespeople at FFD4 

1. Arthur Larok, Secretary General at ActionAid International   
2. Faides TembaTemba, Country Director of ActionAid Zambia   
3. Wangari Kinoti, Lead for Women’s Rights at ActionAid International   
4. Cristina Munoz, Director at ActionAid Spain   
5. Ashina Mtsumi, Co-ordinator for the Tax and Education Alliance, ActionAid International   
6. David Archer, Head of Programmes at ActionAid International   
7. Roos Saalbrink, Lead for Economic Justice at ActionAid International  

Notes to editors 

Photos of the march are available here.