Development Finance International
21 October - Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa 2014
The IMF has published the October 2014 installment of its Regional Economic Outlook For Sub-Saharan Africa
. Bolstered by efforts to invest in infrastructure and by strong agricultural production, the report claims, the region anticipates continued strong growth with an economy forecast to continue growing, expanding by about 5% in 2014, and accelerating to around 5¾ % in 2015. This growth momentum is particularly pronounced in the region’s Low-Income Countries, where activity is forecast to accelerate to 6¾-7 percent in 2014-15.
However, the current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is exacting a heavy toll, with spillovers to neighboring countries. In addition, external threats to the region's overall positive outlook include global financial conditions and a slowdown in emerging market growth. Other topics covered by the publication are building resilience in fragile states and addressing the infrastructure deficit. More information can be accessed in this IMF newsletter article.
16 October - Africa Briefing Available in French
The Africa-focused briefing on public spending in core sectors is now available in French. Click here to find out about the extent to which African countries are meeting the spending targets.
14 October - Handbook on Innovative Finance for Development
The Commonwealth Secretariat has launched ‘Innovative Finance for Development: A Commonwealth Toolkit during their Finance Ministers Meetings in Washington DC. Co-authored by former DFI Programme Manager Nils Bhinda, this handbook is a toolkit containing a one-stop shop where countries can find information about suitable funding for development and aims at guiding countries, especially the smallest, poorest and most vulnerable, and their development partners, with ideas on identifying, evaluating and selecting financing options to boost their development plans. In a context where financing needs significantly exceed the finance available, even if the international community meets its existing ODA commitments, this manual intends to help policy makers navigate the innovative finance landscape and match sources to fund particular development goals.
11 October - From Numbers to Nurses: Joint GSW/IBP Paper Launched in Washington
A joint paper by GSW and the International Budget Partnership (IBP) was launched on Friday 11 October 2014 at the Washington offices of USAID. From Numbers to Nurses: Why Budget Transparency, Expenditure Monitoring, and Accountability are Vital to the Post-2015 Framework identifies how vital ensuring budget transparency, monitoring, and accountability will be to the success of the Post-2015 development framework.
The post-2015 framework will contain the most ambitious set of development goals ever agreed and will require a significant increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of government spending. Bringing together available evidence and new quantitative analysis, this brief shows that budget transparency, expenditure monitoring and accountability can contribute to increases in spending towards, and better results related to, development goals. Whether or not this occurs crucially depends on data availability, space for civil society engagement, political will, and government capacity. Ensuring positive outcomes in the post-2015 agenda requires a “data revolution” in tracking government spending, aid and results.
9 October - LIC Ministers Demand Their Fair Share of Global Tax Revenues
Following their first meeting in October 2012 in Tokyo, Francophone Finance Ministers met in Washington DC on 9th October in the margins of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings.
Three main issues were on the agenda: (i) the revision of the current international taxation system which doesn’t take developing countries’ problems into account and which could translate into an unequal distribution of tax revenues from transnational companies paying taxes in their headquarters countries rather than in the countries where the source material are produced; (ii) the redefinition of aid by the DAC: ministers urged OECD donors to not only maintain aid flows but to also include lower-middle income countries as beneficiaries, and to choose a simple and transparent level of concessionality; (iii) the growing issues related to debt sustainability and vulture funds: ministers urge the international community to adopt laws prohibiting lawsuits against countries in favour of vulture funds and to use the UN backed legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring which is more rapid, comprehensive, transparent and impartial.
These issues were later presented in by the chair of the LIC Ministers’ network Mr. Patrice Kitebi, Deputy Finance Minister of DRC, at a press briefing attended by media and CSO representatives. You can download the press note here .
- 8 October - Reducing Inequality: Do the IMF, World Bank and Other Global Institutions Have an Impact?
- 7 October - Sovereign Debt Restructuring That Works for All
- 21 August - Domestic Resource Trends for Education
- 20 August - Health Care For The Poorest: Are Governments Delivering On Their Commitments?
