General News
8 December. Debt Relief and Better Aid Improve Service Delivery
A new book, published by the African Development Bank - Debt Relief Initiatives, Development Assistance and Service Delivery in Africa, and edited by Matthew Martin and Désiré Vencatachellum, traces the processes and methods by which debt relief and better aid have dramatically improved delivery of the MDGs (especially health and education) in low-income African countries since 2000. Analysing the picture for the whole continent, and case studies of Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda, it concludes that debt relief and other high quality aid such as budget support have made a marked difference to MDG progress. For more information on the book, please click here, and for a copy, please contact DFI.
1 December. New IMF Borrowing Ceilings for LICs
As previewed last year, the IMF has introduced a new matrix for setting borrowing ceilings for low income country Fund programmes. The new matrix replaces conditions prohibiting contraction of debt with a grant element of less than 35%. Instead the borrowing ceiling will take account of a country’s debt vulnerability (measured by its DSF debt distress rating) and its macroeconomic and public financial management capacity (measured by CPIA and PEFA indices). Countries with high debt vulnerabilities and low capacity will face tighter concessionality requirements (minimum 35% grant element) than those with low debt vulnerabilities and high capacity (for the most more advanced LICs there will be no concessionality limit).
For a more detailed discussion of these limits see www.imf.org/external/ and www.imf.org
November 12: South-South Cooperation and Mutual Accountability
At a symposium in Vienna to prepare the 2010 UN Development Cooperation Forum, more than 180 international aid experts discussed how best to promote mutual accountability for aid effectiveness and results, and how to monitor and analyse the results of South-South cooperation. DFI prepared background analytical studies on mutual accountability and South-South-cooperation for the meeting. To access other documents relating to the meeting please click here.
November 9-11: Key Lessons on Debt Strategy
DFI gave a keynote presentation at the 2009 UNCTAD Debt Management Conference in Geneva on why transparent debt strategies are essential. how to formulate and implement them, and what has been achieved so far in this field. To see the presentation, please click here.
HIPC Ministers Meet in Istanbul
The last meeting of the HIPC Ministerial Forum took place in Istanbul on 3 October followed by a press conference on 4 October. This meeting focused on debt sustainability and the MDGs,climate change finance, and future plans for debt strategy capacity-building. To access the background paper click here and for the Ministers’ communiqué please click here.
