Print

14-15 April - Francophone Finance Ministers and Experts Meet in Washington, DC

Saturday, 16 April 2016 00:00

OIFThe Network of Finance Ministers and Experts from Francophone LICs met in Washington, DC in the margins of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Convened by Senegal, the Network's chair country, the meetings were twofold: finance experts and country focal points met on Thursday 14 April to discuss their priorities in terms of fiscal policies in favour of the mobilisation of domestic resources to finance the SDGs. On the agenda were the presentation of the results of the technical workshop held in Dakar, Senegal, in December 2015 on fiscal policies and preliminary outcomes of the revenue study. DFI also introduced the terms of reference of a new study on public-private partnerships (PPP) to be launched in 2016-2017 which will draw on countries' experiences to determine how PPPs can best fit in in their financing strategies.

The second meeting gathered Finance Ministers on 15 April around the theme of domestic resources mobilisation. Chaired by M. Amadou Ba, Senegal's Minister for Economy and Finance, this was an opportunity to resume the dialogue with the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD started a year ago to share and discuss views on issues of concern for the Network.

Senior representatives of the IMF (Sanjeev GUPTA Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department and M. Roger NORD, Deputy Director, Africa Department), the World Bank (Debbie Wetzel, Senior Director of the Governance Global Practice in the EFI Vice-Presidency) and the OECD (Pascal ST AMANS, Director, Center for Tax Policy and Administration) then had the opportunity to hear Ministers' views on their priority policies and technical assistance needs to significantly increase their countries' budget. This led to an exchange with the guest institutions on their country assistance programmes, in terms of policy advice and technical assistance, to promote fiscal revenue for sustainable development.

The event concluded with a briefing session on the Community Development Emergency Programme by the UNDP Resident Representative in Senegal.