Noticias
16 December - GSW commissioned to study financial absorption in the WASH sector for WaterAid
GSW is currently working on a piece of research on behalf of WaterAid to carry out an analysis of financial absorption in the water and sanitation sector. The study aims to shed more light on the paradox of why high levels of water and sanitation poverty and an under-resourced sector can co-exist with available but unused funds. Budget tracking studies of the water and sanitation sector reveal that budget execution rates for many developing countries are significantly lower than the allocations available at the beginning of the financial year.
The reasons for low financial absorption can vary considerably, and may include weak human resource capacity and skills at different stages of the delivery chain, high transaction costs caused by fragmented donor activity, the slow pace of fiscal decentralisation, or an inappropriate mix of recurrent and capital funding.
10-12 December - Senegal’s Views on Turkey’s G20 Agenda and Public-Private Partnerships
DFI assisted New Rules for Global Finance to organise two recent events in New York and Washington DC. The first was a public panel in Washington, sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, in which representatives of the US government, developing countries and civil society examined Turkey’s agenda for its Presidency of the G20 in 2015, where Senegal spoke on Francophone countries’ priorities.
The second was a side-panel during the FfD events in New York, on Public-Private Financing Partnerships, at which Senegal presented its experiences of PPPs, together with representatives of the World Bank, civil society and the private sector. For more details of both events, consult New Rules’ website.
10 December - Financing for Development Partnership with ODI
DFI will partner with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in organising a conference financed by the Gates Foundation, to be held in Accra in March 2015. The conference will help to prepare the UN Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa in July.
DFI’s role will be to help mobilise senior developing country policymakers, and to organise plenary and technical sessions where senior developing country officials explain their financing strategies, as well as role-playing sessions demonstrating the complexities of mobilising suitable financing. DFI participated in the recent CAPE conference at ODI on 12-13 November during which preparatory meetings were held for the Accra conference.
9 December - Francophone Countries Speak at FfD Opening Informal Sessions
DFI assisted the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie to prepare with the participation of several Francophone developing country participants in the opening informal sessions of the Financing for Development (FfD) negotiations in New York, which will culminate in the FfD Conference to be held in Addis Ababa on 13-16 July 2015. Ministers and officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal spoke on debt relief, partnerships for development and international and domestic tax policy.
4 December - Debt Strategy Assistance to Sudan
DFI will be funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Cooperation (SECO) to provide debt strategy assistance to the Government of Sudan. The assistance will consist of two missions and two workshops, reinforcing Sudan’s debt management institutions, training officials in debt strategy analysis techniques, and producing a strategy document to guide Sudan’s potential progress in clearing debt arrears, moving through HIPC and MDRI debt relief, and mobilising longer-term financing for its development.
