The Road to Seville: the Local Way engagement strategy is well underway, ensuring that SDG localization and local financing are at the forefront of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) and throughout 2025.

At the recent workshop at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs in Barcelona on 5 March, local and regional actors were convened to:

• Elevate local financing as a priority for the global development agenda.
• Showcase best practices and innovative financing tools from territories around the world.
• Strengthen multi-level collaboration to align resources with the needs of cities and regions.

Key insights included, among others:

• Jaume Duch Guillot, Minister for European Union and External Action, Generalitat de Catalunya, who set the scene by bringing to the fore the commitment of the Government of Catalonia in fostering local finance, ensuring it is high on the agenda at FfD4.
• Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments, who underlined that we have to focus not only on the mechanisms to advance local finance but also on what services to gear this finance towards.
• Sergio Colina Martin, Director General of Sustainable Development Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation of Spain, who highlighted the key role that local and regional governments and local stakeholders can play in ensuring local finance mechanisms foster SDG localization by working with member states.
• Jordi Llopart, Senior Advisor to the Administrator, UNDP, who underlined that FfD4 represents a key opportunity to define and push specific mechanisms to localize finance for an international financial architecture that is increasingly solid and reliable.
• Agustí Fernández de Losada Passols, Secretary of European, Multilateral Affairs and Development Cooperation, who stressed the importance of local finance and the role that cities and regions play in facing the multiple interlinked crises the world faces today.
• Sébastien Vauzelle, Head of the Secretariat, Local2030 Coalition, who highlighted that the Road to Seville: the Local Way engagement strategy is but one key step in the process towards strengthening local finance and that the focus will continue with capacity building and partnerships post FfD4.