At the request of the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, and financed by the Capacity-Building Trust Fund, a DRI mission visited Juba. The purpose of the mission was to provide independent advice to Government to help conduct a Debt Sustainability Analysis, Implement a technical capacity training program on issues such as risk and cost indicators, DSA methodology, and new financing issues among others. The mission also developed a medium term capacity building program for debt management.

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.

DFI participated in the UN delegation to the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, on 29 November-1 December, to assist in side events on mutual accountability and aid allocation, and a meeting between the UN DCF and its stakeholders on the future architecture for sustainable development cooperation. For a copy of the Busan Declaration, click here. For an independent analysis of the outcome by the Better Aid coalition, click here.

DRI took part in a World Bank-led DeMPA mission in Bamako, Mali. Meeting with officials from the various agencies responsible for debt management, the mission focused on assessing Mali's debt management in keeping with DeMPA methodology. Preliminary results were presented to the authorities at the end of the mission.

Earlier this year DFI prepared a background study for WaterAid analysing central government allocations to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector (WASH). The final report, Off-track, Off-target, which draws of the findings of the background studies of DFI and others is available here.

A group of charities is appealing to Jersey to close the loophole in UK law which is allowing New York based vulture fund FG Hemisphere to sue the Democratic Republic of Congo for $100 million. A media investigation has exposed the hedge fund’s alleged illegal acquisition of DRC’s debt, forcing the second poorest country in the world to pay millions of dollars in interest repayments and fees on the original debt. Read more on the campaign here.

DFI spoke at the UNCTAD Debt Management Conference in Geneva on the links between debt management and public financial management, urging a reversal of the marginalisation of debt management in the absence of debt crisis, and a greater focus on funding decentralised regional and in-country capacity-building. For DFI's presentation click here. The conference also provided a forum for bilateral meetings with many of DFI's implementing partners and the countries we are assisting on debt management capacity-building. Overall, the conference focussed on debt restructuring and responsible borrowing/lending as well as debt management. Click here to see the programme and papers.

A recent joint WB and IMF report on HIPC Initiative aims to accomplish three objectives: 1) provide an update on the status of implementation, impact, and costs of the HIPC Initiative and MDRI; 2) discontinuation of the status of implementation reports and 3) further ring-fencing of countries eligible for debt relief .

Under the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility’s three year arrangement, Côte d’Ivoire is to be relieved of its external public debt worth US$615.9 million. Another US$8 million for interim assistance has been approved under the HIPC Initiative. This decision should help Côte d’Ivoire implement its reforms plan while recovering from recent social and political unrest and economic decline, and reach the Completion Point of the enhanced HIPC initiative. Details and background are available in the IMF press release.

DFI participated at the Development Cooperation Forum meeting in Luxembourg, speaking on the need for strong global mutual accountability mechanisms on development cooperation, without which developing countries cannot hold donors accountable. DFI's presentation is available here. For the conference programme and other papers (mainly on the role of aid in catalysing microfinance, investment and tax revenue) click here.