STRATEGIES FOR FINANCING DEVELOPMENT

Welcome to the new online Strategies for Financing Development Newsletter! Every two months, it will update you on debt strategy, public sector financing and foreign private capital issues, as well as our latest activities and forthcoming events. You can either read it all or click on the bits which interest you most.

In the last two months, DFI participated in 6 major events around the BWI Spring Meetings, led analytical preparations for the UN Development Cooperation Forum, helped the ONE campaign to hold donors accountable for aid, launched its latest book on Private Capital Flows to LICs, helped Uganda design a Partnership Policy, and conducted multiple regional and country capacity-building events. In the next few months we will develop proposals to reduce the debt burdens of Commonwealth Small and Vulnerable Economies; publish analyses for UNESCO and Oxfam on the impact of the global crisis on MDG spending; write the United Nations International Development Cooperation Report; help Publish What You Fund to hold donors accountable for aid transparency; and work with our regional partners to relaunch major capacity-building programmes on debt strategy and foreign private capital in Africa and Latin America.

Debt Strategy

Research, Analysis and Advocacy

• 6 May - Overcoming Developing Country Debt Crises. The Initiative for Policy Dialogue published a seminal study of how to avoid future developing country debt crises, to which DFI contributed a chapter on the experiences of Ethiopia. For more information click here.
• 24 April - Sovereign Debt Management Beyond HIPC. DFI participated in a meeting organised by the German government to discuss new regulatory frameworks to secure debt sustainability and mitigate adverse impacts of future debt crises. The meeting concluded that there was an urgent need for such regulatory frameworks.
• 24 April - OIF Meeting of Francophone Finance Ministers, Washington. DFI participated in a meeting at the BWI Annual Meetings to set priorities for future advocacy to be facilitated by the OIF. The meeting agreed that the key target meetings should be the G8/G20 and BWI meetings, and that the key subjects should be financing for development and debt.
• 22 April - Brookings Conference on Future of G20, Washington. DFI participated in a conference on the future of the G20 at the Brookings Institution, contributing views on the representation and participation of low-income countries, and how development should be discussed there. For the background position paper, please click here.
• 12 April - Friedrich Ebert StiftungES/Erlassjahr Debt Workout Workshop, Berlin. This meeting brought together government officials, CSOs and independent experts to discuss fair and transparent debt workouts. DFI contributed on the experience of HIPC relief and LIC views on the issues. The meeting concluded that urgent actions are need to make future debt workouts more orderly (see moderators summary)

Capacity Building Events

• 30 May-10 June. Mauritania DeMPA Mission.  DFI participated in a DeMPA assessment mission led by the World Bank.  It also met policy makers about continuing to provide its longstanding capacity-building support on debt management and potentially providing support on foreign private capital Management.
• 24 May-1 June. Haiti Institutional Mission. This second CIDA-financed mission organised by CEMLA reviewed the institutional framework for public debt management and produced a first draft law for Public Debt Management.
• 17-21 May - CEMLA MTDS Regional Workshop, Mexico. This workshop familiarised participants from 9 countries with the BWI Medium Term Debt Strategy Framework strategy tool for cost-risk analysis, DFI assisted by providing a resource person for the event.

Public Sector Financing

Research, Analysis and Advocacy

• 3-4 June - UN Development Cooperation Forum High-Level Symposium, Helsinki. This focussed on policy coherence for the MDGs, the role of foundations, CSOs and decentralised cooperation; mutual accountability and transparency; and the gender impact of aid.  DFI participated to share views on the issues and help finalise the UN Secretary-General’s report to the forthcoming DCF Ministerial Meeting in New York. For details of the meeting, click here.
• 2 June - International Mutual Accountability and Transparency on Aid: Next Steps, Helsinki.  This meeting, attended by representatives of developing countries, donors, CSOs and parliamentarians, discussed how to move forward on the Accra Agenda for Action commitment to increase international mutual accountability and transparency for aid. Based on the DCF review, it agreed a series of concrete steps to accelerate progress.
• 25 May - The ONE Campaign’s annual DATA report, This report tracks whether the G8 have lived up to their pledges on aid to Africa. It was published drawing extensively on the HIPC CBP data where countries have evaluated the performance of their donors. To see the analysis, click here.
• 24 May - Review of Progress in International and National Mutual Accountability and Transparency on Development Cooperation.  DFI prepared this review based on comprehensive surveys of sponsors of and participants in international and national MA and transparency mechanisms, conducted by the DCF and UNDP. It finds little progress and makes strong recommendations to strengthen accountability and transparency. To read the study, click here.
• 22 April - Oxfam/IMF Seminar on Role of IMF in Low-Income Countries. Oxfam on the impact of the global financial crisis on LIC budgets and MDG spending (see press release), and the Sierra Leone Finance Minister presented the conclusions of the G20 consultation on the future role of the IMF facilitated by DFI in Freetown and London in August 2009 (see communiqués).

Capacity Building Events

• 17 May-1 June - Support to Develop a Uganda Partnership Policy, Kampala. DFI is assisting the Office of the Prime Minister to elaborate a Partnership Policy to define aid and “beyond aid” cooperation with its development partners. The first mission elaborated an issues paper describing the main policies to be adopted by Government. Future missions will help draft the Partnership Policy, discuss it with all stakeholders, and agree memoranda of understanding between government and partners on performance targets for aid delivery and cooperation beyond aid.

Foreign Private Capital Flows

Research, Analysis and Advocacy

• 27 April - Private Capital Flows to Low Income Countries: Dealing with Boom and Bust, London.  DFI launched its new publication on the impact of the global financial crisis on private capital flows to LICs, at the Overseas Development Institute. To see the presentations and discussions at the meeting, go to the ODI website. To download the publication, click here.
• 26 April - Private Capital Flows to Low Income Countries: Dealing with Boom and Bust, Washington. DFI launched its new publication at a seminar at the IMF organized jointly by the Africa and SPR departments, and held discussions on future cooperation on private capital flows issues with various departments of the IMF and World Bank.
• 21-23 April - Development-Oriented Global Financial Regulation, Washington. DFI joined representatives of the AERC, African Development Bank and New Rules for Global Finance for a series of advocacy meetings with senior US government officials (Federal Reserve, Treasury and Congress) to transmit African views on forthcoming reforms to global financial regulation. Discussions were highly positive and produced a series of proposals for future cooperation. For a report on the outcomes, click here.
• 24-26 March - African Economic Research Consortium Senior Policy Seminar XII on Financial Regulation, Mombasa. This meeting of African researchers and policymakers  examined how to enhance regulatory reforms in Africa and Africa’s views on global financial regulation. DFI helped AERC and the AfDB to facilitate the seminar, produce the report, AND arrange meetings in Washington discussed above. For an introduction to the seminar, click here.

Capacity Building Events

• 8-11 June – UNCTAD/COMESA Training Workshop on FDI/TNC Statistics for Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa. DFI provided a resource person for UNCTAD at this workshop, the aim of which was to improve DRC’s methodology for monitoring FDI and TNC statistics.
• March-April – FPC CBP Closing Workshops in Francophone Africa (Abidjan, Ouagadougou).  Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire closed their first FPC CBP cycles during this period, presenting high-quality reports to national public and private sector stakeholders.  Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Niger and Togo are also finalising their reports and preparing their closing workshops. Their analytical reports will soon be available on this site for download.

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