Minister of Foreign Affairs Iruthisham Adam has said the country’s right to development means having the “freedom and capacity to shape its own future”, as she called for greater access to affordable development and climate finance.
In a statement marking 40 years since the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, Minister Iruthisham said the Maldives’ development ambitions require sustained investment in its people, communities, infrastructure and institutions.
She highlighted President Dr Mohamed Muizzu’s goal of transforming the Maldives into a developed country by 2040, saying resilience for the island nation begins with investment.
“This means stronger schools and hospitals, adequate housing, reliable infrastructure, renewable energy, digital capacity, and new opportunities for our people,” minister said.
She said such investments would strengthen communities, provide people with greater security and opportunities, and enhance the Maldives’ national capacity to determine its own development path.
However, Foreign Minister said countries can only make such choices when they have sufficient financial space to invest.
“Development finance is becoming harder to access and increasingly expensive,” she said, noting that high borrowing costs and debt repayments are reducing resources available for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other areas of development.
The foreign minister called for international cooperation to make development finance “more accessible, adequate, and affordable”.
She urged the implementation of the Sevilla Commitment, particularly commitments on debt sustainability, concessional finance and reform of the international financial architecture.
She also called for climate finance to become simpler and faster to access, particularly for climate adaptation.
Referring to the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Minister Iruthisham said development cooperation should strengthen national institutions, expand domestic capacity and support solutions determined by individual countries.
“Forty years ago, the Declaration recognised a right belonging to every person. Today, our responsibility is to create the conditions in which people and countries can exercise that right,” she said.
“For the Maldives, that means having the space, capacity, and finance to invest in our own future.”
The foreign minister said this was central to building resilience and delivering development in the Maldives.