Últimas noticias
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
A Debt Sustainability Workshop was held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on 17-29 October. The objective of the workshop was to enhance capacity in debt sustainability for staff from the Public Debt Department, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Budget, and the Central Bank. About thirty staff were trained using the methodology developed by the World Bank and the IMF (Debt Sustainability Framework for Low Income Countries) in order to draft the country's debt sustainability report.
Dos expertos de DFI llevaron a cabo las dos misiones finales a Guinea en cumplimiento del programa nacional de fortalecimiento de las capacidades en la gestión de la deuda, auditoría y control. Luego de dar inicio a un programa de capacitación para ejecutivos y expertos en inversión pública del Ministerio de Finanzas, los consultores están finalizando actualmente un manual nacional de procedimientos para la gestión y el control de los proyectos de inversión pública.
Los resultados de los ASD están disponibles en el sitio del FMI. Los resultados correspondientes a Benín, Camerún, República Kirguiz, Lao, Liberia, Mauritania, Moldova, Mozambique, Papua Nueva Guinea, Rwanda, Senegal, Tayikistán y Tanzania son similares a los de anteriores ASD. En Ghana y Togo la situación mejoró, pero empeoró en Costa de Marfil y la República del Congo. Los resultados correspondientes a Zimbabwe indican que ese país está en condiciones de sobreendeudamiento.
DFI contribuyó a facilitar una reunión técnica de autoridades de los países miembros y secretarías del Commonwealth y la OIF que se celebró Wilton Park, Reino Unido, para la sensibilización y el análisis de diversos tipos de instrumentos y mecanismos de financiamiento innovadores. DFI realizó una presentación sobre medidas de recaudación pública, como los Impuestos a las Transacciones Financieras (FTT en inglés), y los gravámenes a los combustibles para la navegación aérea y marítima. Esta reunión fue consecuencia de las recientes reuniones de los Ministros de Finanzas del Commonwealth y la OIF en las que se analizaron estos aspectos (véase 22 de setiembre).
