Activists Call for Change in Seville

By David Latona and Silvio Castellanos

SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) – Activists marched in blistering heat through southern Spain’s Seville on Sunday, calling for debt cancellation, climate justice, and taxing the super-rich on the eve of a UN summit on financing development that critics argue lacks ambition and scope.

The four-day meeting, held once every decade, aims to tackle poverty, disease, and climate change by mapping the global framework for development. However, the United States’ decision to withdraw and wealthy countries’ decreasing appetite for foreign aid have dampened hopes for significant change at the summit.

Greenpeace members carried a float depicting billionaire Elon Musk as a baby wielding a chainsaw, seated atop a terrestrial globe. Others held banners reading “Make Human Rights Great Again”, “Tax justice now”, or “Make polluters pay”.

Beauty Narteh of Ghana’s Anti-Corruption Coalition emphasized the need for a fairer tax system, stating “dignity, not handouts” is what they seek.

Sokhna Ndiaye, from the Africa Development Interchange Network, called for both public and private sectors to show more solidarity with developing countries.

Earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez remarked that the conference’s occurrence amidst global conflict should inspire hope. Addressing an event by non-profit Global Citizen, he reiterated Madrid’s commitment to allocate 0.7% of GDP for development aid and urged other nations to follow suit.

Jason Braganza, executive director of pan-African advocacy group AFRODAD, criticized countries such as the U.S., EU, and Britain for obstructing efforts to organize a UN convention on sovereign debt, lamenting that they prioritize creditor interests over lives lost in the process.