Development Finance International

At the global level, DFI has become a regular source of advice for many international organisations, OECD donors and CSO coalitions on potential reforms to the international financial architecture, debt relief and sustainability initiatives, aid effectiveness and policy issues, and foreign private capital. For more on the reports resulting from these projects, please see the commissioned research page.

DFI’s extensive experience of providing advisory services includes helping developing countries to:

• conduct Debt Sustainability Analysis, design national debt policies and strategies, and set national borrowing limits;

• negotiate relief on multilateral debt, bilateral Paris Club and non-Paris Club debt, and commercial debt, as well as forestalling or defending litigation, partly under the auspices of the HIPC Capacity-Building Programme.

• design and implement policies for external resource mobilisation, including making decisions on accessing international capital markets, getting a country credit rating, designing an aid policy so as to maximise the quality and effectiveness of their aid, and implementing that policy by negotiating with aid donors to change their behaviour

• restructure their domestic debt portfolios and design new issuance strategies to deepen their markets, reduce interest rates and lengthen maturities.

• reinforce their policies to attract foreign private capital (FDI, portfolio flows, private sector lending), diversify source countries and host sectors/regions, reduce its cost and increase its sustainability and contribution to national development. For suggestions on how to design a policy action plan in this area (page 12), click here.

Where possible we always prefer to provide advice in a way which maximises the training of national officials so as to build their own technical capacity, ensuring that they do not have to call on us or other advisers repeatedly; and allows them to take the lead in advising their own policymakers rather than relying on us. In addition, as these advisory services are provided on a non-profit basis, they are considerably cheaper than those of commercial organisations.

Latest work DFI carried out in this area:

5 September - BMZ Seminar on "Managing Sovereign Debt Crises beyond HIPC"

DFI helped to mobilize Development Countries Participants for the Workshop "Managing Sovereign Debt Crises beyond HIPC" hosted by the Federal Ministry of Development Co-operation (BMZ) in Berlin in June. For the organizers final report click here.

DFI is currently providing technical assistance in debt management to Guinea. A six-month expert attachment is focusing on building capacity and training in debt management mechanisms, on the design of debt management and monitoring tools, as well as providing advisory services to the Department for Debt and Aid Management.

13-16 April - Support to Meetings on Sudanese Debt Relief

DFI, funded by Seco, supported the Government of Sudan in preparing for Technical Working Group and Round Table meetings at the BWI Spring Meetings, which discussed the potential cancellation of Sudanese debt as part of the secession of Southern Sudan and subject to continuing progress on peace in Darfur. Northern and Southern Sudanese officials announced their agreement that the existing debt of Sudan will remain with the North, subject to strong commitment by the international community to cancel most of the debt at the earliest possible dates. They also announced strong progress on debt reconciliation and an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy, as well as the design of an outreach strategy to creditors.

9 February - DFI Contributes to UNCTAD Expert Meetings

DFI participated in UNCTAD's Peer Review Meeting in Geneva on 1 February, to discuss sections of the World Investment Report 2011. It also presented synthesis findings at UNCTAD's Multi-Year Expert Meeting on Investment for Development during 2-4 February. The meeting was well attended by international experts, and a number of countries from the SSA and LAC regions. Discussions focussed on the nexus between public and private, domestic and foreign investment, looking at different types of capital flows, and the role of public investment in boosting growth, private investment, and industrial policy.