International Financial System and Development

A/RES/78/136View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 16b International financial system and development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 2003–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/122

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/122	International financial system and development	5,978	37%Compare
2024	A/RES/79/196	International financial system and development	6,920	85%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/136	International financial system and development	6,458	90%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/152	International financial system and development	5,907	79%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/192	International financial system and development	5,416	90%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

24 reports · 2003–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/322	International financial system and development report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/80/122
2025	A/80/331	International financial system and development report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/196
2024	A/79/130	International financial system and development report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/136
2023	A/78/178	International financial system and development report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/152
2022	A/77/224	International financial system and development report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/192

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 subjects

Covid-19 Developing Countries Development Banks Development Finance External Debt International Finance International Financial Institutions

What’s in this document?

50 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;¹²

¹²A/78/178.

Recognizes the need to continue and intensify efforts to enhance the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems, reiterates the importance of ensuring their openness, fairness and inclusiveness in order to complement national efforts to ensure sustainable development, including strong, sustained, balanced, inclusive and equitable economic growth, and that all people, in particular the poor and vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources and appropriate financial services, and the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement,¹³ and encourages the international financial institutions to align their programmes and policies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development¹⁴ in accordance with their mandates;

¹³See FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, decision 1/CP.21, annex.

¹⁴Resolution 70/1.

Also recognizes that the twenty-first century requires an international development finance system that is fit for purpose, including for the scale of need and depth of the shocks facing developing countries, in particular the poorest and most vulnerable, keeping pace with a changing global landscape characterized by deeply integrated financial markets, multiple crises with cascading effects, systemic risks, the adverse impacts of climate change, shifting trade and financial relations, and rapid technological change, recognizes in this regard the urgent need for bold and ambitious reforms to create a stable, sustainable and inclusive international financial architecture, and reiterates that the international financial architecture, including its business models and financing capacities, must be made more fit for purpose, equitable and responsive to the financing needs of developing countries, to broaden and strengthen the voice and participation of developing countries in international economic decision-making, norm-setting and global economic governance;

Welcomes the work of the High-level Panel on the Development of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index for Small Island Developing States, which was co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, and the former Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, including its consultations with Member States, and in this regard takes note of the Panel’s final report and the recommendations contained therein;

Notes that the United Nations, on the basis of its universal membership and legitimacy, provides a unique and key forum for discussing international economic issues and their impact on development, and reaffirms that the United Nations is well positioned to participate in various reform processes aimed at improving and strengthening the effective functioning of the international financial system and architecture, while recognizing that the United Nations and the international financial institutions have complementary mandates that make the coordination of their actions crucial;

Recognizes the important efforts undertaken nationally, regionally and internationally to respond to the challenges posed by the global financial and economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent multiple crises, and also recognizes that more needs to be done in order to promote the economic recovery, to manage the consequences of volatility in global financial and commodity markets, especially continued high inflation, high interest rates and exchange rate pressures, as well as capital flight from shock-vulnerable countries, to tackle high unemployment and rising indebtedness in many countries, as well as widespread fiscal strains, to reinforce the banking sector, including by increasing its transparency and accountability, to address systemic fragilities and imbalances, to reform and strengthen the international financial system and to continue and to enhance the coordination of financial and economic policies at the international level;

Acknowledges that growing risks from more frequent and interconnected shocks require new and innovative financing instruments to boost the availability of resources for all countries in need;

Also acknowledges that endeavours to overcome the global financial and economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent multiple crises must go beyond short-term relief, and recognizes the need for continued action to support the developing countries, including middle-income countries, that are most in need, on an inclusive basis, including through enhanced cooperation between the United Nations and international financial institutions and multilateral and regional development banks, according to their respective mandates, net positive flows from the international financial institutions to developing countries, sufficient concessional finance by, inter alia, enhancing access to concessional, long-term loans and development assistance while mobilizing catalytically additional resources from the private sector and assisting developing countries in addressing debt vulnerability and liquidity risk in the immediate term and in attaining debt sustainability in the long term, notes the multilateral response to the pandemic, including the Group of 20 and Paris Club Debt Service Suspension Initiative, and remains concerned with the lack of participation of private creditors, appreciates the recent progress made in the ongoing implementation of the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, encourages the Group of 20 and Paris Club creditors to discuss options for implementing comparability of the treatment of private and other official bilateral creditors, expanding support to highly indebted developing countries, considering the provision of temporary debt standstills on a case-by-case basis throughout negotiations and facilitating rapid recovery of capital market access following restructuring, and calls for stepping up efforts to improve and implement the Common Framework in a timely, orderly, predictable and coordinated manner, noting the possibility for greater collaboration of credit rating agencies in this regard, and notes the liquidity support for countries with liquidity constraints and the forthcoming evaluation of funding needs of the International Monetary Fund Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust;

Recognizes the role of special drawing rights as an international reserve asset, acknowledges that special drawing rights allocations helped to supplement international reserves in response to the world financial and economic crisis as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, thus contributing to the stability of the international financial system and global economic resilience, and supports the continued examination of the broader use of special drawing rights as a way to enhance the resilience of the international monetary system, including with reference to their potential role in the international reserve system;

Welcomes the special drawing rights allocation of the equivalent of 650 billion United States dollars of 23 August 2021, recommends the exploration of further voluntary options related to special drawing rights that could serve the needs of developing member countries of the International Monetary Fund, calls for the urgent voluntary rechannelling of special drawing rights for countries most in need, including through multilateral development banks, while respecting relevant legal frameworks and preserving the reserve asset character of special drawing rights, and will explore ways for future allocations of special drawing rights to benefit those countries most in need;

Takes note with appreciation of the operationalization of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust of the International Monetary Fund to help eligible countries address longer-term structural challenges that pose macroeconomic risks, looks forward to the upcoming interim review of the Trust, and notes that debt sustainability and liquidity can play an important role in achieving a sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Stresses that multilateral development banks are a key component of the reform of the international financial system, and also stresses the need to strengthen multilateral development banks and consider an increase in concessional funding from multilateral development banks, taking note of the recommendations under the Capital Adequacy Framework review by multilateral development banks to increase their lending and for the consideration of global financial system reform, which includes lending criteria that complement or go beyond gross domestic product and are based on a comprehensive understanding of multidimensional factors, including but not limited to vulnerability and resilience of developing countries;

Urges multilateral development banks to bring forward actions to mobilize and provide additional financing within their mandates to support developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, supports multilateral development bank reform efforts and calls for continued tangible progress in this regard, including through securing increases to grants and concessional finance, better leveraging their capital bases and considering ways for the respective boards of the multilateral development banks to increase their capitalization, and encourages dialogue between multilateral development banks and other financial institutions;

Stresses the critical importance of a stable, inclusive and enabling global economic environment for the advancement of sustainable development, for the reliable and effective financing of development and for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, mobilizing public and private, as well as domestic and international resources;

Notes the adoption by the Statistical Commission of the proposed new indicator 17.3.1 under Sustainable Development Goal target 17.3 (Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources), also notes the need for open, inclusive and transparent discussions on the modernization of official development assistance measurement and the new measure of “total official support for sustainable development”, and affirms that any such measure will not dilute commitments already made;

Reiterates that debtors and creditors, including both public and private, must work together in a transparent manner to prevent and resolve unsustainable debt situations and that maintaining sustainable debt levels is the responsibility of the borrowing countries, acknowledging, however, that lenders also have a responsibility to lend in a way that does not undermine a country’s debt sustainability, and in this regard takes note of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development principles on responsible sovereign lending and borrowing and recognizes the applicable requirements of the International Monetary Fund debt limits policy and/or the World Bank Sustainable Development Finance Policy, as well as the safeguards of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its statistical system to enhance the debt sustainability of recipient countries, and will work towards a global consensus on guidelines for debtor and creditor responsibilities in borrowing by and lending to sovereigns, building on existing initiatives;

Invites, in this regard, the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General to give appropriate consideration to the central role of maintaining and facilitating the financial and macroeconomic stability of developing countries, including debt sustainability, and of supporting an appropriately enabling domestic and international economic, financial and regulatory environment for the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including financial inclusion, and in this regard invites all major institutional stakeholders, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, to support these efforts, in accordance with their respective mandates;

Encourages, in this regard, the Economic and Social Council to consider, at its annual forum on financing for development follow-up, a dedicated discussion and analysis of systemic issues and challenges, taking into account the roles of all international financial institutions and also the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in accordance with their respective mandates, pursuant to the relevant resolutions on this matter, including its resolution 69/313 on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the mandate of the annual forum on financing for development follow-up set out therein;

Resolves to strengthen the coherence and consistency of multilateral financial, investment, trade and development policy and environment institutions and platforms and to increase cooperation between major international institutions, while respecting mandates and governance structures, and commits itself to taking better advantage of relevant United Nations forums for promoting universal and holistic coherence and international commitments to sustainable development, building on the vision of the Monterrey Consensus, with a view to supporting the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda;

Recalls that countries must have, in accordance with their specific needs and circumstances, the flexibility necessary to implement countercyclical measures and pursue tailored and targeted responses to the various types of shocks, including economic and financial crises, notes that, in the 2018 International Monetary Fund review of programme design and conditionality, it was found that the number of structural conditions included in programmes of the Fund had increased over time, and calls for the Fund to build on recent progress to further prioritize reforms and streamline conditions to ensure that they are timely, tailored and targeted, in accordance with national circumstances and priorities, and that they support developing countries in the face of financial, economic and development challenges;

Notes, in this regard, the new strategy of the International Monetary Fund for engagement on social spending, welcomes the Fund’s recognition of the adverse impacts that fiscal adjustment could have on the vulnerable, for whom social spending is critical to achieving the commitments under the 2030 Agenda, including nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and encourages greater collaboration on social protection finance among all international development institutions;

Invites the multilateral development banks and other international development banks to continue to provide both concessional and non-concessional, stable, long-term development finance by leveraging contributions and capital, including hybrid capital, and by mobilizing resources for developing countries from multiple sources, for example from capital markets, and stresses that development banks should make optimal use of their resources and balance sheets, while preserving long-term financial sustainability, robust credit ratings and preferred creditor status, consistent with maintaining their financial integrity, and should continue to discuss options for implementing the recommendations of the independent review of multilateral development banks’ capital adequacy frameworks, commissioned by the Group of 20, and should update and develop their policies in support of the 2030 Agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals, as appropriate;

Welcomes, in this regard, the ongoing work of international financial institutions, including the more recently established New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in the global development finance architecture, and encourages enhanced regional and subregional cooperation, including through regional and subregional development banks, commercial and reserve currency arrangements and other regional and subregional initiatives;

Encourages, in this regard, the multilateral development banks to continue to move forward on flexible, concessional, fast-disbursing and front-loaded assistance and innovative financial instruments that can absorb or diminish the financial costs for developing countries, with due regard to ensuring the financial sustainability of the banks, that will substantially and quickly assist developing countries facing financing gaps in their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in line with their national development priorities, taking into consideration the individual absorptive capacities and debt sustainability of those countries, and invites shareholders of regional development banks to ensure that they remain sufficiently capitalized so as to be able to meet those needs, and encourages an ambitious replenishment of the International Development Association to keep and increase the funding of the most concessional facilities of the World Bank;

Also encourages the multilateral development banks, within their respective mandates and in a coordinated way, to continue to expand technical assistance, disseminate and share their knowledge and best practices, as well as foster a deeper understanding of financial capacity and capital needs, in order to enhance the multiplier effect of their financing by leveraging more resources and diversifying their sources, including by mobilizing long-term and sustainable private investment, from domestic and international actors, to provide innovative and integral solutions to multidimensional development problems, in particular in developing and emerging economies;

Recognizes the need for the international financial institutions, as appropriate, to promote gender mainstreaming in their policies and programmes, including macroeconomic, job creation and structural reform policies and programmes, in accordance with relevant national priorities and strategies;

Urges multilateral donors and invites the international financial institutions and regional development banks, within their respective mandates, to review and implement policies that support national efforts to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reach women and girls, in particular in rural and remote areas, and invites multilateral and regional development banks to agree on common indicators for analysing the gender impact of their lending;

Recognizes that it is important that all international financial institutions and multilateral development banks continue to be adequately resourced, and reiterates the importance of further governance reform in order to adapt to changes in the global economy;

Recalls the commitment of the International Monetary Fund to revisiting the adequacy of quotas and continuing the process of governance reform under the sixteenth general review of quotas, including a new quota formula as a guide, by 15 December 2023, and the commitment to ensuring the primary role of quotas in Fund resources, and that any adjustment in quota shares would be expected to result in increases in the quota shares of dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole, while protecting the voice and representation of the poorest members, and recommits itself to the broadening and strengthening of the voice and participation of developing countries, including African countries, the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States, middle-income countries and countries in conflict and post-conflict situations, in international economic decision-making, norm-setting and global economic governance;

Encourages Member States to work together to strengthen and improve a system in which different layers of the global financial safety net are closely coordinated and have clear assignments of responsibilities and consider enhancing regional financial arrangements to help countries to weather shocks, strengthen their capacity to detect risk and create new regional arrangements where there are not sufficient institutions in place;

Acknowledges the importance of the international financial institutions supporting, in line with their mandates, the policy space of each country, while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments, in particular developing countries;

Reaffirms that cohesive, nationally owned sustainable development strategies, supported by integrated national financing frameworks, will be at the heart of efforts, reiterates that each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that the role of national policies and development strategies cannot be overemphasized, expresses respect for each country’s policy space and leadership to implement policies for the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions and for sustainable development, while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments, at the same time recognizes that national development efforts need to be supported by an enabling international economic environment, including coherent and mutually supporting world trade, monetary and financial systems and strengthened and enhanced global economic governance, and that processes to develop and facilitate the availability of appropriate knowledge and technologies globally, as well as capacity-building, are also critical, and commits to pursuing policy coherence and an enabling environment for sustainable development at all levels and by all actors, and to reinvigorating the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development;

Recommits itself to a redoubling of its efforts to substantially reduce illicit financial flows by 2030, with a view to eventually eliminating them, including by combating tax evasion and corruption through strengthened national regulation and stronger and more effective international cooperation;

Notes that rapid developments in digital financial technology, further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have transformed the provision of financial services and created a new ecosystem of digital assets, recognizes the relevance of carefully monitoring domestic and global developments, reviewing and updating regulatory frameworks when necessary and cooperating across sectors and borders to support enabling environments that take due account of opportunities and risks to ensure a more balanced view of digital financial innovations, while still fostering competition and innovations in the financial system, and requests the United Nations system to continue to support developing countries through knowledge-sharing, technology transfer on mutually agreed terms and capacity-building in order to better address the opportunities, challenges and implications of emerging digital financial technologies, including digital inequality;

Also notes the development of central bank digital currencies, and encourages regulators to consider potential opportunities and risks for the international and domestic financial system;

Further notes the statement by the Financial Stability Board on international regulation and supervision of cryptoasset activities, including stablecoins, of 11 July 2022, underlining that stablecoins should be covered by robust regulations and supervision by relevant authorities if they are to be adopted as a widely used means of payment or otherwise play an important role in the financial system, in line with their national regulations and policies;

Notes the work by the Financial Stability Board on financial market reform, commits itself to sustaining or strengthening frameworks for macroprudential regulation and countercyclical buffers, reaffirms the commitment to hastening the completion of the reform agenda on financial market regulation, including assessing and if necessary reducing the systemic risks associated with non-bank financial intermediation, markets for derivatives, securities lending and repurchase agreements, and also reaffirms the commitment to addressing the risk created by “too-big-to-fail” financial institutions and to addressing cross-border elements in the effective resolution of troubled, systemically important financial institutions;

Also notes that there are growing risks outside the regulatory framework, including through non-bank financial institutions and financial technology, and calls upon financial regulators to increasingly shift towards examining the underlying risks associated with financial activity rather than the type of financial institution;

Calls upon financial regulators to encourage financial institutions to explore new opportunities to improve their ability to better manage risks, including through anti-money-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism measures, as well as through the greater use of technology to help to address the costs and risks of operating correspondent banking relationships;

Emphasizes the relevance of inclusion in the international financial system at all levels and the importance of considering financial inclusion as a policy objective in financial regulation, in accordance with national priorities and legislation;

Reiterates that effective, inclusive multilateral surveillance should be at the centre of crisis prevention efforts, stresses the need to continue to strengthen surveillance of the financial policies of countries, and in this regard notes the current efforts to update the surveillance approach of the International Monetary Fund in line with its mandate to better integrate bilateral and multilateral surveillance, along with cross-border and cross-sectoral linkages with macroeconomic and macroprudential policies, while paying closer attention to the spillover effects from national economic and financial policies on to the global economy;

Notes the potential for source countries of capital flows to use appropriate combinations of macroeconomic, macroprudential and regulatory policies that avoid excessive leverage and large international spillovers in the form of capital flow volatility, while still meeting domestic macroeconomic objectives, encourages source countries to consider such policies, while clearly communicating monetary policy decisions, and calls for greater macroeconomic coordination among systemically important economies, which can also help to address global financial market volatility;

Invites the international financial and banking institutions, in consultation with national Governments, to develop tailored guidelines on how countries can attract long-term international investments, guided by the 2030 Agenda, in line with national plans and policies, and with a view to minimizing the adverse effects of capital market volatility;

Reiterates the need to resolve to reduce mechanistic reliance on credit-rating agency assessments, including in regulations, and to promote increased competition as well as measures to avoid conflict of interest in the provision of credit ratings, underlining the importance that credit rating agencies ensure that their ratings are objective, independent, forward-looking and based on accurate information and sound analytical methods, and notes that Member States may consider the feasibility of establishing public rating agencies;

Invites the international financial and banking institutions to continue to enhance the transparency and analytical rigour of risk-rating mechanisms, noting that sovereign risk assessments should maximize the use of objective and transparent parameters, which can be facilitated by high-quality data and analysis, and encourages relevant institutions, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, to continue their work on the issue, including the potential impact of the role played by private credit-rating agencies on the development prospects of developing countries, in accordance with their mandates;

Recommits itself to enabling women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in the economy and their equal access to decision-making processes and leadership;

Encourages all development banks to establish or maintain social and environmental safeguard systems, including on sustainable infrastructure, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, that are transparent, effective, efficient and time-sensitive, and engage affected communities in project design and implementation;

Reiterates that States are strongly urged to refrain from promulgating and applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impede the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries;

Requests, in this regard, the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session an action-oriented report on the implementation of the present resolution, with a particular focus on reform of the international financial system in the post-COVID era;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-ninth session, under the item entitled “Macroeconomic policy questions”, the sub-item entitled “International financial system and development”, unless otherwise agreed.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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