Ministers of Finance of OIF LICs and LMICs, meeting in Washington DC on 17 October under the joint chairmanship of Madagascar, Benin, and Rwanda, discussed their heavy debt burdens with senior officials of the IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD and Paris Club. In a subsequent press conference, they demanded urgent measures to prevent a widespread new debt crisis, including increasing flows of concessional funds, enhancing their capacity to design higher-return projects, increased transparency on lending terms by the international community, making more use of contingent loans and guarantees to reduce debt service costs, and reinstating a HIPC++ framework to provide coordinated, comprehensive and rapid debt relief to countries to help finance the SDGs. To read a copy of the communique click here.

DFI presented a report to Commonwealth Finance Ministers and Senior Officials on 16 October in Washington. The report analysed recent trends in debt of all Commonwealth countries, concluded that there is an urgent need to take measures to reduce the debt burden of Commonwealth Low and Middle-Income Countries and Small Island Developing States, and outlined a series of measures which could be taken. To read the report, click here.

DFI was asked by the Pathfinders Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion to present to Ministers of member states and leaders of other organisations on the key political and economic success stories of making taxation more progressive in recent years. The presentation covered success stories in making tax systems more progressive, solidarity contributions, leveling the playing field for all companies and individuals, fair taxation of unearned income and of wealth, and combating tax dodging and evasion. To access the presentation click here.

A mission staffed by a DFI consultant visited Cameroon to assist the government in beginning the migration of its database from CS-DRMS to the new Meridian debt management system. The mission trained Caisse Autonome d’Amortissement staff in how to validate their database and remove any errors from it before migration. Cameroon has an extremely large and complex database so this process is expected to take up to six months, after which another mission will go to Cameroon to complete the validation and migrate the database.

A mission by a DFI consultant visited Nigeria to assist the government in upgrading their CS-DRMS system from version 1.3 to version 2.3, in reconciling data between the two system versions to make sure version 2.3 could run smoothly, in configuring the system to fit their hardware and software needs, and in training Debt Management Office staff in how to use the new version of the system. The mission also migrated various Nigeria-specific customised debt strategy and transparency reports to the new version 2.3.

DFI presented at the Commonwealth Debt Forum in London, on The Changing Face of Financing and its implications for debt management. The presentation focused on the key new types of financing for low and middle-income countries: domestic debt markets; global bond markets; public-private partnerships; and new forms of less concessional South-South cooperation. It provided ideas on how mobilise the best examples of such financing; and how to restructure such financing in the event of a debt crisis. The presentation can be opened here. The rest of the conference covered natural disasters, transparency, contingent liabilities, and green and blue bonds, and provided the forum for launching the new Commonwealth Meridian debt management system of which DFI will be the sole distributor for non-Commonwealth countries. The conference can be found here.

DFI   presented the CRI with Oxfam, Norwegian Church Aid and the Fight Inequality Alliance in a series of Fight Inequality events in Oslo. These included a public campaigning event where Norwegians were urged to join the Fight Inequality campaign, a seminar at NORAD where the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI) was discussed, and meetings with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Development.

DFI facilitated and presented at a public conference and training seminar for central and decentralised government officials, thinktank policy experts and civil society representatives on Fiscal Space and Budget Planning, funded by Oxfam Vietnam and the Budget Training and Analysis Programme. Participants examined the availability of fiscal space in Vietnam, concluding that it mostly depends on increasing collection of income taxes and innovative taxes. 

DFI, the ITUC, New Rules for Global Finance and Oxfam co-sponsored a seminar in the Civil Society Policy Forum of the IMF and World Bank Meetings, analysing whether governments are taking the right measures to fight inequality, and whether the IFIs are supporting them in this effort. Held in Bali, Indonesia, the seminar launched two new policy reports: the DFI/Oxfam Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018, which looks at policy measures being taken by governments and the  New Rules DFI Report on Financial Impact and World Bank efforts to fight inequality.

The GFII report concludes that the IMF is making slow but inconsistent progress towards helping countries fight inequality more effectively, with its score rising from 2.7 to 2.85 out of 5. Since the last report, it has mainstreamed inequality in its country analysis and policy recommendations, but needs to apply this to all countries; scaled up its technical assistance to countries to help collect more (especially corporate and personal income) tax; and broadened its definition of key social spending beyond education and health.

DFI provided technical and logistical assistance to OIF in convening the meeting of Francophone Finance Ministers in Bali, in the margins of the decentralised Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Chaired by Mrs Vonintsalama Andriambololona, Madagascar’s Minister of Finance and Budget, the meeting enabled all OIF member countries to hear the results of the work on development financing issues carried out by the Network of Finance Ministers from Francophone LICs.