This background paper, prepared by ODI, is intended to inform the discussions of the task force charged with developing the Global Alliance. It looks at the international financial landscape for SDGs 1 and 2, focusing on aid and concessional finance for low income countries (LICs) and lower middle-income countries (LMICs). These countries account for the overwhelming bulk of extreme poverty, as measured by the USD 2.15/ day threshold, and the deprivation tracked in SDG 2 indicators, including under-nutrition, stunting, and wasting. Official development finance (ODF)—aid and other financial flows— is not the main act in financing for the SDGs in LICs and LMICs. The momentum for an SDG recovery needs to come from national leadership and domestic resource mobilisation. But ODF can play a valuable support role, supplementing national efforts, expanding the fiscal space available to governments, and backing investments in people. It can create an enabling environment for a big push to eradicate poverty and hunger. The UN Secretary General has urged the G20 to support a transformative SDG Stimulus package of around USD 500 billion in affordable long-term financing for development (United Nations, 2023). Much of that stimulus needs to be directed to SDGs 1 and 2.