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Permanent Mission of India
New York
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High-Level Session - At the Heart of Development: Aid, Trade, and Technology

Statement by Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, Permanent Representative
24 September, 2025

Hon’ble External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, and Madam,

Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico H.E. Mr. Juan Ramon de la Fuente,

Distinguished Panelists,

President of the Observer Research Foundation Samir Saran,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome you all to today’s High Level Panel Discussion coinciding with the High Level Week of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The title of today’s discussion focused on the role of aid, trade and technology in propelling the development agenda, especially for the Global South, is very timely. In the 80th year since the founding of the United Nations, the majority of the population on the planet who are citizens of Global South, face a world economy strained by crises and climate change, stuck in a low growth and weak investment cycle, and unable to meet their development needs. 

Let us briefly analyze each in turn. 

Aid – ODA is not only a source of emergency assistance but is a route for a future predicated on education, healthcare and economic opportunities. What are the trends in aid provision?

As per UNCTAD:

  1. The global aid target was missed by almost half. While the Sustainable Development Goal 17.22 target aims at an ODA contribution of 0.7% of donors’ gross national income, in 2023 aid provided by OECD-DAC members reached only 0.37%.
  1. Geopolitical challenges are straining financial flows which are vital for the poorest and most fragile economies. New emergencies, some directly affecting donor countries, have shifted priorities and led to increased pressure on aid budgets. In 2023, ODA to developed countries increased further to $43 billion, while ODA for asylum seekers and refugees in donor countries remained elevated at $31 billion. Conversely, ODA to Africa declined by almost 7% to $74 billion, and aid to Latin America and the Caribbean dropped by 15% to $14 billion.
  1. The one category of ODA disbursement that has seen over a 1000% increase in the last two decades, is of assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in donor countries, which according to OECD has gone up from 3 billion dollars in 2010 to over 31 billion dollars in 2023.
  1. Sustainable development financing is being significantly impacted by the need to respond to emergencies and crises.

Now let us deal with trade

Trade – The UNCTAD Trade & Development Report clearly outlines that several ongoing shifts are creating an inflection point in globalization that poses multiple challenges to developing countries. The current global economy is characterized by the following:

  • Lacklusture growth in global output and Stagnation and deceleration in the world’s major economies
  • Eroded growth potential across the Global South due to multiple crises
  • Huge increase in public debt level after COVID-19 shock
  • Eroded household purchasing power in both advanced and developing countries due to increase in consumer prices
  • Shrinking stable jobs in the manufacturing sectors

The UNCTAD Report calls for addressing this through:

  1. Structural diversification, concrete commitment to social protection and inclusive growth strategies.

  2. Promoting domestic revenue mobilization, curbing corporate arbitrage and enhancing oversight of multinationals to build economic resilience and achieve equity across the Global South.

  3. Effective South-South policy cooperation and North-South dialogue.

  4. Leveraging new emerging opportunities, especially in green transition sectors,
    encouraging lower-skill job creation in non-tradeable services, and encouraging productivity enhancing investments for SMEs.

  5. Since only 22 developing countries have investment grade ratings, undertake efforts to significantly revamp development financing and bring about a development-focused global financial system through multilateral cooperation.

Now for Technology.

Technology – The third pillar of technology is again critical. New technologies in AI, bio-informatics, genetics, medicine and other frontier areas, are capital-intensive and out of reach of most of the Global South countries. The beacon of hope in this regard is the effort by India and a few other large developing countries to leverage technology to help leapfrog development. This has been most visible in the case of digital public infrastructure.

  • With Aadhaar, all adult Indians numbering over 1.2 billion have a 12 digit unique bio-metric based identifier that can be securely and in real-time authenticate one’s identity.
  • The Unified Payments Interface – the real-time, instant payment system is promoting digital inclusion while reducing dependency on cash. Today, there are 17 billion monthly transactions, with a value of over USD 275 billion. 
  • 540 million bank accounts have been linked with Aadhaar biometric ID cards, and mobile phone numbers to facilitate Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) of government subsidies to needy citizens, ushering in the world’s largest financial inclusion programme and reducing leakages and corruption. 

Friends

We are certainly on a trendline to miss achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Hence, the discussion today is vital in exploring how we could bring back global attention to the 3 important enablers of development – aid, trade and technology – for the benefit of the majority of humanity.

I thank you for your patient hearing and look forward to an enlightening discussion.

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