Africa

La wilaya de Bordj Bou Arreridj franchit un nouveau jalon dans le renforcement de son tissu industriel et l’attraction d’investissements à forte valeur ajoutée. En […]

L’article 1 000 emplois en vue : Un méga-complexe d’aluminium de 8 hectares s’installe dans cette wilaya est apparu en premier sur .

Frais supplémentaires, démarches ajustées et nouvelles restrictions en vue : l’Union européenne prépare un virage majeur pour la délivrance des visas Schengen de court séjour. […]

L’article Visa Schengen : nouveaux frais, restrictions… l’UE prépare de nouvelles règles est apparu en premier sur .

When we speak of tectonic shifts, we usually refer either to geology or to the international order. In geology, tectonic plates shift and build up tension until it is released. Likewise, since the end of the Cold War, the international order has experienced mounting pressure, and seemingly entrenched
global structures have begun to shift. At the same time, societies and cooperation systems are under internal pressure from the growing impacts of environmental and climatic change, younger generations’ demands for new opportunities, and technological advances, not least in artificial intelligence. In reaction to both external and internal pressures, reforming complex systems is challenging and requires skilled, dedicated people and well-connected institutions (Reiber & Reiners, 2019). Transnational knowledge cooperation has thus gained substantial relevance (see Lynders, 2024).

As governments increasingly prioritise national interests, security concerns and geopolitical competition over collective global responsibilities, traditional development finance mechanisms are being weakened, repurposed or redirected towards advancing narrow strategic objectives. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development projects a 23 per cent decline in official development assistance (ODA) between 2024 and 2025 (OECD, 2026). This reduction not only has immediate consequences for the lives and livelihood of millions of people in low-income countries (LICs) who depend
on external assistance, but also creates uncertainty for partner countries, disrupts long-term development planning, and undermines the legitimacy and effectiveness of development cooperation. At the same time, development finance needs have risen sharply and continue to rise due to the climate cri-
sis, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and rising food and energy prices. Together, these pressures have contributed to a projected USD 6.4 trillion financing gap for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 (OECD, 2025a). Against this backdrop, mobilising greater volumes of private capital aligned with the SDGs has become increasingly important (on the need for the European Union to become
more adept at facilitating private investment, see the contribution by Keijzer & Furness in this volume). In particular, blended finance has frequently been promoted as one key instrument to achieve this objective (on domestic revenue mobilisation as another key approach, see the contribution by Sen & von Haldenwang in this volume). However, despite growing attention from policy-makers and development institutions, the scale of blended finance has remained well below expectations and so far made only a limited contribution to closing the SDG financing gap. Although transaction volumes increased from USD 11.5 billion in 2020 to USD 18.3 billion in 2024, they remain small relative to the estimated USD 4 trillion annual SDG financing gap (Convergence, 2025; OECD, 2025a). As such, the Sevilla Commitment (UNCTAD, 2025) calls for scaling up private capital mobilisation through blended finance and a broader use of risk-sharing instruments. This chapter discusses the benefits and limits of blended finance as well as reforms that are needed at different levels to scale up blended finance and enhance its development impact.

Current disruptions to the rules-based international order, widely perceived as a resurgence of geopolitics, have placed multilateral governance under pressure. Environmental multilateralism is no exception, even as an interconnected ecological crisis comprising climate change, biodiversity and
ecosystem loss, and the degradation and pollution of vital land and water resources calls for far-reaching governance responses and structural transformations to safeguard the possibility of sustainable futures. If the yardstick for delivering the necessary transformations is the ability to avert and minimise global heating, mass extinction and plastic pollution (among other ecological risks), the record of multilateral environmental governance is mixed at best, even during less geopolitically charged times. While it has enabled a large and highly heterogeneous group of sovereign states to converge normatively around common environmental objectives, which is no mean feat, it has fallen significantly short of solving the world’s ecological problems. This implementation gap is widely recognised and supported by scientific evidence from intergovernmental scientific bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It is therefore evident that multilateral environmental institutions warrant reform if they are to address global ecological challenges effectively. This was the case before the recent geopolitical disruption. However, that disruption – combined with environmentally harmful geoeconomic competition,  territorial conflicts over strategic land, water and mineral resources, and nationalist pushback against scientific evidence and environmental “restrictions” – makes progressive reform even more pressing (Bauer, 2026). We argue that the disruptive dynamics of current geopol-
itics constitute not only an imperative for reform, but also an opportunity to pursue it. This chance should be seized to enhance international cooperation through multilateral environmental institutions and to narrow evident implementation gaps by making those institutions more efficient
and effective. Aligning agendas and policy priorities across levels of governance and across the full range of pertinent multilateral environmental institutions will be an essential first step. Enhancing coordination between the three “Rio Conventions” – the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – would provide an obvious starting point.

Why talk about a global sustainability agenda when the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction? As geopolitical tensions rise, multilateral cooperation fragments and economic interdependence becomes a tool of strategic competition, the idea of a shared global framework for sustainable development beyond 2030 may appear increasingly detached from political reality. Yet this chapter argues that such a framework is more necessary than ever, not despite the polycrisis, but because of it. An overarching global sustainability framework beyond 2030 fulfils key functions of enhancing coherence that issue-specific cooperation alone cannot deliver, a statement supported by a large body of literature but contested in current politics. We argue that a global sustainability framework enhances resilience amid the polycrisis, helps to revive a new shared normative language to support sustainability, serves as a reference point for plurilateral partnerships and guides the transformation of economic systems to promote prosperity. These functions explain why the (re)negotiation of a beyond-2030 framework is also rational from a geopolitical perspective. The term “renegotiation” is deliberately defined broadly in this text, as a new sustainability framework beyond 2030 could mean either an actual renegotiation of a new set of goals or rather a continuation of the current goals. However, given the current global power shifts, we acknowledge the possibility that a renegotiation would be difficult to achieve. Both in the case of renegotiation and continuation, the emphasis should also lie on a stronger implementation and accountability architecture.

Kenya's Agnes Ngetich breaks the world record for a women-only half marathon as she wins gold at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen.

The children of key politicians jailed 25 years ago without a trace in Eritrea want answers.

The children of key politicians jailed 25 years ago without a trace in Eritrea want answers.

The police have since set up a task team to investigate the murders and have urged women in the Kempton Park area to avoid walking or running alone "particularly in isolated areas".

The police have since set up a task team to investigate the murders and have urged women in the Kempton Park area to avoid walking or running alone "particularly in isolated areas".

African football boss Patrice Motsepe wants a "heightened sense of urgency" from Afcon 2027 co-hosts Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as they face a race to be ready.

African football boss Patrice Motsepe wants a "heightened sense of urgency" from Afcon 2027 co-hosts Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as they face a race to be ready.

Dineo Motapane is one of nine recent victims whose deaths have left a nation traumatised over the level of violence against women.

Dineo Motapane is one of nine recent victims whose deaths have left a nation traumatised over the level of violence against women.

In Zusammenarbeit mit MySports präsentiert dir Blick die Highlights der Partie Genf-Servette – HC Ajoie (3:4 n.P.).

In Zusammenarbeit mit MySports präsentiert dir die Highlights der Partie Fribourg – Lausanne HC (4:2).

Kurz vor dem Umstyling liegen die Nerven blank und die Funken beginnen zu brennen... oder so ähnlich. Zappalot freut sich auf das geile Makeover der Nerds.

Zwei Touristinnen ignorierten in einem Naturpark auf Sardinien die Absperrung. Und versanken hüfthoch in einem Schlammbecken. Immer wieder ignorieren Touristen Verbotsschilder oder Naturgesetze und geraten in bizarre Notlagen.

Former France international Patrick Vieira, a World Cup winner in 1998, says taking charge of Senegal, the nation of his birth, is an "honour".