Global financial system needs extensive reform

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, adviser to the prime minister on finance and planning, has called for comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture to ensure affordable, predictable and vulnerability-sensitive financing for developing countries.

Speaking at the Leaders’ Dialogue on ‘Leading SDG Action’ during the 2026 SDG Moment, convened by the UN Secretary-General at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York on Friday, Titumir said, “Our broader vision should be collective and forward-looking: a global financial architecture that does not merely finance development, but creates the conditions in which development can be sustained.”

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He outlined five priorities for reforming the international financial architecture, particularly for multilateral development banks: shifting from crisis response to anticipating vulnerabilities; giving vulnerable countries a stronger voice in international financial institutions; providing longer-term, lower-cost and predictable finance; aligning international finance with national development strategies through coordinated, multi-year financing; and ensuring flexible transition support and preferential arrangements for LDC-graduating countries, including Bangladesh.

He also highlighted Bangladesh’s SDG Village initiative as an integrated, community-led approach to translating the SDGs into tangible improvements at the local level, said a press release from the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations.

The dialogue also featured Teresa Ribera of the European Commission, Aristide Medenou, minister of economy and finance of Benin, and Beatriz Carles de Arango, minister of social development of Panama.

Sherwin Bryce-Pease of the South African Broadcasting Corporation moderated the discussion.