Development Finance International
21-22 June - World Bank Infrastructure Governance Roundtable, Abidjan
DFI assisted OIF to organise and support the participation of Francophone policymakers at the World Bank infrastructure governance roundtable in Abidjan. Officials and parliamentarians transmitted the concerns of the OIF Finance Ministers’ Network about the need to reduce the costs and risks of public-private partnerships for infrastructure, and to maximise their transparency and accountability to citizens and parliaments.
18-21 June - DFI to Lead UNDP Benin Development Financing Assessment, Cotonou
Following DFI’s work as a global advisor on Development Financing Assessments and lead consultant for Cameroon and Comoros, UNDP has also selected DFI to lead the work on Benin. The study began with a launch mission to Cotonou which conducted initial consultations with leading government Ministers and officials, as well as other stakeholders.
The mission agreed the key priorities in terms of sectors with major financing gaps, types of financing where the government needs more assistance with mobilisation, and institutional capacity-building support which will be required to improve mobilisation and management of financing.
The next mission will take place in September, and the report is expected to be finalised by December.
11 June – The Next Financial Crises Discussed at the EURODAD Policy Forum, Brussels
DFI attended the EURODAD Policy Forum in Brussels and made a keynote presentation on Current and Potential Global Financial Crises, and how we can resolve or prevent them.
DFI’s presentation focussed on the existing widespread debt crisis crowding out SDG spending; the growing crisis of falling and less effective aid flows; the potential tax revenue crisis if global tax dodging and the race to the bottom on tax rates is not stopped; and the potential crisis which might be caused by excessive financialisation and privatisation of public services and infrastructure in developing countries. Participants from European and Southern CSOs then spent a day strategising and planning future work on to resolve current or prevent future financial crises.
30-31 May - Swedish Tax Conference, Stockholm
DFI attended the Tax Conference held in Stockholm, assisting African governments and CSOs to prepare and make presentations in various sessions. The conference produced a declaration which could potentially mark a major reinforcement of the Addis Tax Initiative and global efforts to increase revenue mobilisation in developing countries, especially as it emphasises the need to make tax systems more progressive, more gender-responsive, and more transparent and accountable to citizens, parliaments and civil society.
DFI and OIF intend to join the Addis Tax Initiative to ensure that the views of low-income countries are even more clearly heard in its future deliberations.
27-29 May - World Bank Debt Conference: How to Deal with Shocks?
DFI attended the World Bank Debt Management Facility Stakeholders Conference in Brussels. After participating in the Implementing Partners Consultative Group (ICG) meeting, DFI presented in a session on How Can Countries Be More Resilient to Shocks? The presentation suggested that most shocks are not shocks at all, but predictable; that we know exactly what to do about them from past experience; and that this involves the international community and the Bretton Woods Institutions playing a leading role in regulating to prevent shocks, in providing social protection funding to the poor to make them genuinely resilient, and in providing unconditional and highly concessional financial support to poorer countries to offset the effects of shocks, because they will never be resilient enough to “adjust” to their consequences given their poverty and vulnerability.
