IMS champions innovative financing for public interest media at FFD4 in Seville

With the world seeing competing demands on development budgets and stuttering commitments from those in charge, IMS is urging states to acknowledge the underpinning role of public interest media in delivering the information integrity needed for equitable and accountable global financial systems. 

We need more support for the crucial role of public interest media in promoting transparency, accountability and public engagement in development financing. This includes enhancing journalists’ capacity to report on financial processes, foster financial and statistical literacy and ensure accessible and reliable information for all.  

In early July 2025, IMS convened alongside heads of government in Seville for the UN’s 4^th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). This was the first time in a decade that the international community came together to discuss financing sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

IMS’ key finding from the conference was that the media development community needs to see much further outside its own blinkers to be effective in unlocking new financing. The approach moving forward needs to be not only about seeking funding for public interest journalism but also about working with banking, business and local communities to develop systems that enable public interest journalism to deliver on larger global challenges. 

IMS is working hard to find new sources of capital in local contexts for our media partners and new ways to deliver innovative financing for development. 

Our message at FFD4 was the need to assist local enabling economic and business communities surrounding public interest media to function. In particular, we see an urgent need to: 

— Scale up collaboration and multidisciplinary ways of working. 

— Position media as micro and small enterprises, drawing them more clearly into entrepreneurial and business development communities. 

— Scale up the capacity development needed to make financial flows effective, such as accelerators, advisors, mentoring and cohort approaches, which make knowledge applied and actionable. 

— Acknowledge that local banking and community institutions may not be the first actors that come to mind when trying to unlock local capital but are nonetheless a key component. 

— Deal with systemic and thematic challenges facing multiple civil society sectors around inequality and information integrity with a joint approach. The Global Public Investment Network is one such initiative. 

— Understand that, at the macro level, debt-for-development swaps currently used to support programmes related to nature and climate may offer entry points for public interest infrastructure financing. 

— Acknowledge that pledges made by Open Society Foundations to support the international economic architecture should serve as indicators for potential new entry points of philanthropic funding for the media community. 

Public interest media is critically important in economic growth, to revitalise local economies post-conflict and to help sustain local livelihoods. Yet the supply of capital needed to underpin journalism work is dwindling. We need to understand where invisible breaks lie that hinder the economic progress of our partners. 

Prior to the conference, the official outcome document – the Compromiso de Sevilla – was prepared and adopted at a preparatory meeting in New York.  The United States withdrew from the negotiations, paving the way for agreement among the other countries. 

Central areas of focus on media development 

The main risk for the global media development community was that advocacy work for references to media by the Global Forum for Media Development and others were removed in the negotiation process. Public interest media is a key stakeholder in how to achieve the desired results of the Compromiso, and the EU has largely fallen short of referencing public interest media explicitly in the outcome document. Without these references, follow-up advocacy work becomes more difficult. 

We also hoped for more nuanced acknowledgement of support for journalism as a key contributing factor to information integrity and economic stability as a process and transparency mechanism. 

Two entry points made clear for journalism are their roles to combat illicit financial flows and to gather information for transparent economic systems. 

We encourage further efforts to acknowledge the role of public interest media in improving a business-enabling environment, including through delivering enhanced transparency, good governance, anti-corruption measures, rule of law, investor and consumer protection and fair competition, aligning these with sustainable development.  

Public interest media play a pivotal role in fostering transparency, accountability and protection of human rights within the context of financing for development—particularly the contributions of investigative journalists. 

We also encouraged states to recognise the role of public interest media in advancing financial literacy, raising awareness, empowering citizens to demand accountability, scrutinising those in power and guaranteeing public access to reliable information. 

The successful implementation of FFD4 will depend not only on a widespread public understanding of its objectives but also on the availability of timely and accurate information regarding its progress. This flow of information will rely on the presence of a robust and independent media system operating both domestically and internationally. 

As international development financing increasingly supports digital infrastructure—often in collaboration with private sector partnerships—states bear the responsibility of implementing robust safeguards that protect human rights, ensure transparency and promote accountability. We need investment in resilient, secure, affordable, inclusive and interoperable digital financial infrastructure, prioritising the public good. These investments must be transparent and based on comprehensive human rights impact assessments and risk evaluations, incorporating secure digital systems and user-centred safeguards at their core. 

It is essential to prioritise initiatives that enhance civic resilience against digital information manipulation and improve digital, media, information and financial literacy. Both traditional and digital media play a critical role in bridging knowledge gaps and facilitating the dissemination of culturally relevant content, thereby fostering informed and engaged societies. 

Localised approaches through unlocking local capital 

Through the Seville Platform for Action, the Danish delegation is supporting an initiative called Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development or SCALED (formerly known as Hamburg Sustainability Platform, HSP) to unleash the full potential of blended finance to mobilise private capital on a large scale. This initiative strives to contribute to financing the economic transitions required for a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future. 

At IMS, we see local actors as being best placed to find solutions. Across our global network, local sources of philanthropy and private, community and government capital have emerged in many markets. At IMS, we are committed to working with our global network of partners to turn localised appetites for new funding, financing and investments into realities. We will respond to demand for local capital activation in two ways: Firstly, through the media development work needed to identify and enable best-fit financing tools; and secondly, by mobilising and deploying global capital in ways that effectively unlock locally identified financing for development initiatives. 

IMS presented to the Danish delegation possible entry points to align NGO and investment strategies with sustainable media development and impact. This is especially timely when foreign agent laws (for example, in Georgia and Hungary) are being used to silence public interest media by strangling their ability to receive foreign funding. There are many mechanisms in pilot phases, including local funds for journalism ripe for systematic deployment. 

Following on from IMS’ report, “Where’s the money?”, we covered philanthropy as one of the lifelines for independent journalism in these times of market failure. We have also looked into the vital necessity to get private money into the mix, without which viability will not be achieved. This prospect needs joint advocacy to get journalism recognised as a public good and/or as part of the cultural industries sector.  

Human-rights based development  

Following the FFD4 conference, it is now all the more important to secure an ambitious plan to move from words to action, building on the Global Digital Compact and the Pact for the Future, as the world is facing a massive funding gap that is already hampering the realisation of the SDGs. The next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) needs to prioritise human rights-based development finance and humanitarian aid that also reaches the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. 

The Seville Conference was an opportunity to put information integrity and localisation at its core. IMS is advocating for governments to take a human rights-based approach that ensures sustainable and equitable development for the most vulnerable groups. 

FFD4 in Seville was the first time a UN conference on financing for development had been held in Europe. With Denmark (where IMS’ headquarters are based) holding the EU presidency in the second half of 2025, it is a historic opportunity for the Scandinavian country to provide international leadership focusing on action and responsibility, including with a view to ensure that independent public interest media can survive and thrive at a time where they are under immense political and financial pressure.