According to UNDP, the Conference on Financing for Development will take place in Havana on the 16th and 17th and its objectives include the challenges and opportunities for the country in accessing international financing.
In areas such as energy transition, drug production, and environmental conservation; as well as to make visible good global practices of channeling external financing for development, from regional and sub-regional development banks, according to UNDP.
There will also be discussions on regional experiences in the operation and creation of national development banks, as well as solutions such as blended finance and other innovative financing mechanisms.
The international organization recalls that the UNDP’s 2024 Report on Financing for Sustainable Development underscores the crisis the world is facing in this regard, the core of which are the financial challenges.
The document adds that, previously, UNDP identified financing for development as an accelerator of the 2030 Agenda in the Global Strategic Plan 2022-2025.
The plan therefore promotes partnership between governments and the public and private sectors to align capital flows towards the Sustainable Development Goal targets and promote financing on a different scale.
Meanwhile, from Cuba, the Joint Program “Support for the Formation of an Integrated National Financing Framework for the SDGs in Cuba” between 2020 and 2023 identified that the main constraint to development for a small, open and developing economy is the restrictions on access to external financing.
Cuba is currently facing a complex economic situation as a result of the pandemic, the international crisis and challenges associated with updating its economic model.
This combined with the strengthening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against the country as a result of the imposition of unilateral coercive measures which include its inclusion in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The meeting was convened by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, the Central Bank of Cuba and the UNDP in alliance with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba and in coordination with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
ef/jav/ro/tdd
