In 2025, UN member states will hold the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Spain to agree on an ambitious global financing agenda that advances sustainable development. UNDP has launched its Finance, Integrity and Governance (FIG) initiative which provides space to examine emerging issues on financial integrity and governance and serves as a co-creative knowledge track that is separate from but in support of member states’ FfD4 negotiations.

In May 2024, the FIG initiative - coordinated by UNDP’s Global Policy Centre for Governance (GPCG) - convened its first multi-stakeholder policy symposium focused on the topics of international tax cooperation and illicit financial flows (IFFs). The event used foresighting methods and was conducted under the Chatham House rule. This paper highlights key messages from the event:

• FfD4 presents an opportunity to enhance financial integrity and governance to ensure that more financing truly leads to more sustainable development. This requires inclusive, effective and accountable policies and institutions.
• An INCLUSIVE international financial architecture is one where both the design process is inclusive, and benefits and costs of are fairly distributed.
• More ACCOUNTABILITY may require a follow-up mechanism that is country-owned, well-resourced and has ‘teeth’, as well as tackling environmental and climate-related IFFs to ensure accountability to future generations.
• EFFECTIVE responses require capacity and collaboration, e.g. knowledge transfer on new technologies and coordinated international action to tackle the ‘enablers’ of IFFs.

The FIG initiative will convene two more policy symposia, with two working papers to follow.