Public debt and finance
DFI and its partners have developed a comprehensive capacity building programme in debt strategy and public finance, which includes in-country workshops and missions as well as regional events and a distance learning programme.
All national workshops and missions are tailored to meet country-specific capacity building needs in all aspects of debt strategy analysis, debt sustainability, external debt relief and legal and institutional issues, as well as new external financing strategy, aid, non-concessional external financing and domestic financing strategy.
Latest work DFI carried out in this area:
5 to 15 Dec 2011 – Debt Relief Capacity Building Training Seminar in Sudan
At the request of the national authorities, a mission from DRI travelled to Sudan in order to assist the Government in its preparations for the HIPC Initiative. The mission had three main objectives: 1) Provide practical training to Government officials on the various aspects of debt relief and Debt Relief Analysis. 2) Assist officials in preparing for a National DRA Workshop in March of 2012 and 3) Assist Government to finalise preparations of the proposal, budget and results matrix for the 3-year Debt Strategy and Analysis Capacity Building Programme. The mission was part of a program being financed by the Government of Switzerland to support debt management in Sudan.
13-16 September - Final HIPC CBP Mission to Ethiopia
The final mission of the HIPC Debt Strategy and Analysis Capacity-Building Programme (see http://www.hipc-cbp.org/) was conducted by DFI and a Zambian expert, fittingly to Ethiopia which made major strides in improving its debt strategy capacity under the CBP. The mission agreed with the Government on a debt strategy and analysis capacity-building programme for potential donor funding.
5-11 September - Targets Designed to Improve Partnership in Uganda
DFI conducted the final mission of the Uganda Partnership Policy project funded by DfID. The mission achieved its three aims: to draft targets for development partners to improve their aid to Uganda; to redraft a MoU to be signed by Uganda and its partners to implement the policy; and to make recommendations for capacity-building support to be provided to government, parliament and civil society in order to ensure the policy is successfully implemented. The policy is currently being approved by Cabinet and will begin to be implemented in 2012.
July - September - Final Aid & Auditing Missions in Guinea
Two DFI experts have conducted their final two missions in Guinea in keeping with the national capacity building programme in aid management, and audit and control. After launching a training programme for Ministry of Finance executives and public investment experts, the consultants are now finalising a national manual of procedures for the management and control of public investment projects.
25 July - 5 August - Southern Sudan Debt Policy and Capacity Building Mission
DFI was funded by the Joint Donor Capacity Building Trust Fund for Southern Sudan to help the Government of the newly-independent Republic of Southern Sudan to examine policy options for post-independence development financing – especially borrowing on concessional terms – and the institutional and capacity-building measures required to establish a debt management unit well coordinated with wider economic policymaking. To read more on Southern Sudan’s debt, click here.
25-29 July - Mauritania Diversifying Development Financing Advisory and Capacity-Building Mission
As one of the last missions of the HIPC Debt Strategy and Analysis Capacity Building Programme, Development Finance International conducted a mission to Nouakchott to help the Government examine options for diversifying sources of development financing away from concessional OECD aid. The mission designed a plan for diversification and for reinforcing Mauritania's institutional structures to manage all development financing, which will be finalized with Government by the end of Q3.
11-22 July - Tajikistan Debt Management Reform Plan Mission
A joint Development Finance International and World Bank mission visited Dushanbe to conduct a Reform Plan mission in July. The mission met the various officials involved in debt management and with their input prepared a reform plan that contains short and medium-term recommendations, capacity building needs and their costings. The draft report was finalized and has been sent for peer review.
26-29 April - MEFMI - Malawi Debt Sustainability Analysis Workshop
A successful DSA workshop with 22 participants was conducted by MEFMI as part of the HIPC CBP, to support the Malawi government by training staff in the use of the DSF tools. At the end of the workshop a draft DSA report was submitted to senior officials for comments. The exercise revealed that Malawi remains sustainable even in the presence of serious shocks and decline of GDP growth. The results of this DSA will feed into the 2011/12 budget framework and the review of the MTDS planned for the end of 2011.
7 April - 30 June - Technical Assistance to Guinea
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.
30 Jan-3 February - DFI Assists Sudan Government to Plan Debt Relief and Capacity-Building
DFI was funded by the Swiss Ministry for Economic Affairs to conduct this mission to Khartoum to assist the government with technical inputs for planning potential debt relief under the HIPC process, depending on various decisions relating to the treatment of debt in the discussions on secession by Southern Sudan. It also assisted the government to plan a 4-year programme for capacity-building to maximize its debt relief and ensure its debt remains sustainable after relief.
December - January - Rwanda Financial Resource Mobilisation Strategy
A DFI associate, funded by UNDP, assisted the Government of Rwanda to design a Resource Mobilisation Strategy to fund the national development programme. This focussed on diversifying financing sources away from OECD aid to new concessional and private financing sources.
