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In partnership with La Francophonie, DFI helped facilitate the latest meeting of the Network of Finance Ministers from Francophone LICs in Washington on 19th April 2018, in the margins of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
Chaired by Herilanto Raveloharison, Minister of Economy and Planning of Madagascar, the meeting gathered 15 countries and 5 sub-regional and international organisations and focused discussions on the issue of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) with high-level BWI representatives.
Faced with budget constraints to finance the infrastructure they need to speed up their economic growth and ensure their development, the countries expressed the wish to develop these partnerships to mobilise additional financial resources. They are however aware of the complexity of PPPs and the specific skills needed to successfully implement them without jeopardizing their public finances. Ministers would therefore welcome a more appropriate support from international institutions, better suited to their needs.
The IMF and the World Bank emphasised the importance they attach to this dialogue with the Network and their wish to pursue this cooperation. They heard of countries’ PPP-related concerns and priorities and, based on their previous discussions, described the progress achieved in terms of technical assistance to Francophone countries in other action areas of the Network. In addition, Ministers expressed their concerns about continued inconsistency in World Bank Group policies between, on the one hand, assistance to countries to increase tax revenues; and on, the other hand, the tax exemptions routinely demanded for IFC and PPP projects, as well as the encouragement in the Doing Business rankings of reductions in corporate income tax rates. They asked the World Bank once again to review these policies to ensure coherence in its operations.
The meeting was co-chaired by Benin’s Finance and Economy Minister Romuald Wadagni and Louis-Paul Motaze, Minister of Finance of Cameroon and was preceded by the yearly technical meeting of finance experts who discussed PPP issues in more depth to feed in the ministerial discussion. It was followed by meetings between the Madagascar chair and senior officials of the BWIs, to discuss in more detail their progress on scaling up technical assistance to Francophone countries on increasing progressive revenue mobilisation, and on designing and managing PPPs to minimise costs and risks.
DFI and Oxfam presented the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRII) at the CSO Innovation Fair on 18 April 2018 in Washington, in the margins of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
Held for the first time in the World Bank Atrium, the Fair gave CSOs an opportunity to showcase their projects, innovative products, flagship reports, and ground-breaking campaigns that produce improved development outcomes and contribute to a continued dialogue.
More than 150 participants at the Spring Meetings – including delegates from 52 countries, BWI staff and CSO representatives, stopped at the DFI-Oxfam stall and had the opportunity to explore the Index, enquire about the methodology, and discuss the data findings and the policy solutions (social spending, progressive taxation and labour rights) to fight inequality promoted by DFI and Oxfam. The next edition of the CRII is due to be launched at the Annual Meetings of the BWIs in Bali in October.
Governments will generate more domestic revenue if they strengthen and increase the effectiveness of their tax systems. This is what a group of international institutions (IMF, World Bank, OECD and UN) told Governments at the first Global Conference on Taxation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax.
Held on 14-16 February 2018 at the UN Headquarters in New York, the conference highlighted the importance of focusing efforts on domestic resource mobilisation and recognised the challenge it represents for developing countries to finance essential services such as health and infrastructure. It also warned countries of spillovers from their tax policies and encouraged them to support stronger tax systems, while urging them and all stakeholders to collaborate on establishing a fair and efficient system of international taxation, including efforts to fight tax evasion and tax avoidance.
A conference statement summarising the discussions and next steps was issued at the end of the event.
DFI supported OIF in running a workshop on Public Private Partnerships for the Network of Finance Ministers from Francophone Low-Income Countries. Held in Cotonou, Benin and attended by senior officials from 18 network member countries, the workshop was facilitated by DFI, the IMF, the World Bank, Foley Hoag LLP, African Legal Support Facility, Expertise France, FinInfra, and the Association des Parlementaires Francophones.
The Heinrich Boell Foundation and Eurodad provided further support. Discussions focussed on legal and institutional structures, financial costs and risks, negotiating and renegotiating contracts, as well as transparency and accountability. At the end of the workshop, participants stressed the need to be extremely prudent in financing national development via PPPs, and agreed to create a working group and network to take forward joint work on this type of financing.
DFI-Oxfam’s Tax Progressivity Database was used as a technical source for a briefing paper by Oxfam and the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific (ESCAP).
“Taxing for Shared Prosperity” highlights the increase in inequality in the Asia-Pacific region and offers policy options to close the growing wealth gap between rich and poor. Through the analysis of income and inequality trends, the report calls for governments in the region to take bold policy measures by introducing progressive tax policies, strengthening revenue mobilization and improving tax structure.
DFI provided a resource person for an Oxfam expert meeting on best practices in using government spending to fight inequality. It presented on how to expand fiscal space to increase spending, on how public spending can best benefit women and girls and on the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index.
The workshop was attended by participants from 14 Oxfam programme countries, as well as UN Women and the Uganda Ministry of Finance, who exchanged experiences on how best to influence government spending policies to ensure that they fight inequality more effectively. A communiqué establishing a Collaboration Group on Public Spending for inequality reduction was produced.
DFI has been contracted by UNDP as lead consultant for two missions to Cameroon and Comoros. The aim of the missions is to help both countries conduct a Development Financing Assessment (DFA) and to develop an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) to support the financing of their national development goals and the SDGs.
Consultations were held with government policymakers and officials, as well as representatives of parliament, civil society, the private sector and the donor community, in order to help governments identify key types of development financing which could be scaled up to support the SDGs. The missions also explored the key reinforcements which could be made to government policies and systems to ensure more successful mobilisation and utilisation of development financing. For more on DFAs and INFFs, see here.
DFI and OIF attended the 15th meeting of the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters in Geneva. This was the first meeting of the new committee appointed in 2017 and it aimed to set the agenda for the committee’s work for the next few years, given its expanded mandate and budget following the Addis Ababa Conference on Financing for Development.
The committee focussed its discussions on three areas of key concern to members of the OIF Finance Ministers’ Network: environmental taxation, taxing the digital economy and taxing donor-funded development projects. OIF intervened on the last set of issues, underlining the strong concerns of the Network that such projects (especially those which support highly profitable private sector enterprises) should not benefit from tax exemptions. The background papers for the meeting are available here.
DFI and Oxfam launched the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index at a roundtable for Geneva-based UN organisations. Held at the International Labour Organisation headquarters in Geneva, it gave a brief presentation of key findings. The 30 participants focussed their discussion mainly on issues around the positive impact of social protection spending on inequality, and on how best to measure progress in improving labour rights, including for women.
In the roundtable and separate bilateral meetings with ILO staff, excellent suggestions were made for improving the Index and enhancing cooperation between the ILO, DFI and Oxfam on data collection and analysis in future editions of the CRI.
DFI chaired a session of the TAXCOOP conference 2017 in Geneva, organised by OIF, in which Francophone West African representatives from CREDAF, WAEMU and the Government of Senegal discussed their experiences in using regional cooperation and common tax treaties to fight against the global “race to the bottom” in corporate and personal income tax rates.
They emphasised that while they have had considerable successes in both agreeing common policies on tax rates and coverage and providing mutual capacity-building on tax collection, continued success will depend on cooperation by OECD countries and international organisations in renegotiating tax treaties, and ending tax exemptions on donor projects and for foreign investors, so that national tax authorities are able to collect higher levels of income taxes from the same rates. For details of the conference, whose proceedings will be published eventually in book format, see here.
DFI participated in a CSO-organised panel on public-private partnerships (PPPs), based on recent studies by Eurodad and Jubilee Debt Campaign, to discuss with IMF and World Bank officials their roles in helping countries to analyse and reduce fiscal risks of PPPs.
DFI presented the conclusions of the OIF Finance Ministers’ network on PPPs as expressed in their communiqué of 12th October, emphasising the potential high costs and risks of PPPs. It highlighted the need for comprehensive preparation in terms of laws and institutional structures to dramatically scale up capacity in developing countries to design, prioritise and implement public investment projects, and to negotiate PPP contracts more successfully, in order to reduce costs and risks.
DFI also emphasised two of the key ministerial recommendations: publishing an ex-ante assessment of the potential costs and risks of each project and maximum consultation with parliament and civil society before signing any major contract.
