The gap between rich and poor nations is growing even wider as actions agreed to by many countries last year, including overhauling the major global financial institutions, remain unfulfilled promises, a U.N. report concludes. The report lands just ahead of next week’s spring meetings in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where the same institutions that shape economic growth are once again set to talk about the crisis they help manage. **Who Pays for the Delay** The U.N. report assessed the blueprint adopted in Seville, Spain, last June to narrow the gap and achieve U.N. development goals for 2030. That blueprint called for scaling up investments in developing countries and reforming the international financial architecture, including the World Bank and IMF. But the report says the promises remain just that: promises. The gap keeps widening while the machinery of global finance keeps its grip. Li Junhua, the U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said geopolitical tensions were compounding the struggles of developing countries to attract financing. “This is an extremely perilous time for international cooperation, as geopolitical considerations are increasingly shaping economic relations and financial policies,” he said. The report also pointed to rising trade barriers and repeated climate-related shocks as adding to the growing gap. The managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said it had been prepared to upgrade global growth, but the Iran war has now darkened the outlook for the world economy. That is the language of the institutions: growth, outlook, upgrade. On the ground, the report says, the costs keep landing on developing countries trying to secure financing in a system built around gatekeepers. **The Architecture of Inequality** At last year’s conference in Seville, the leaders of many of the world’s nations, but not the United States, unanimously adopted the Seville Commitment, aimed at closing the $4 trillion annual financing gap for development. The commitment called for reforming the international financial architecture, including the World Bank and IMF. The report on implementing that commitment said it represents “the best hope” to close the widening financial gap. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called for major changes to the two institutions, saying the IMF has benefited rich countries instead of poor ones, and the World Bank has failed in its mission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which left dozens of countries deeply indebted. His criticisms echo those of outside critics who cite frustration in developing countries with the U.S. and its European allies dominating decision-making at financial institutions. That is the hierarchy in plain sight: decisions concentrated at the top, debt and dependency pushed downward. The report does not describe a system that has failed by accident. It describes a system still operating as designed, with rich countries and their allies holding the levers while poorer nations are told to wait for reform. **Aid Cut, Tariffs Rise** The report says the gap widened further because support from richer countries is shrinking. In 2025, Li said 25 countries decreased their development assistance to poorer countries, leading to a 23% overall drop from 2024, the largest annual contraction on record. The biggest decline — 59% — was from the United States, he said. Based on preliminary data, Li said, a further decline of 5.8% is expected in 2026. The report also said tariffs — including those imposed by the Trump administration — have had a major impact on developing countries. Average tariffs on exports from the world’s poorest nations surged from 9% to 28% in 2025, the report said, and for developing countries, excluding China, average tariffs increased from 2% to 19%. Those numbers show how the costs of policy decisions made by powerful states are dumped onto people far from the rooms where the decisions are made. The Seville Commitment promised a different direction. The report says the gap keeps growing anyway, while the institutions at the center of global finance prepare for another round of meetings in Washington.
