Actualité
11 July – Ouagadougou - DFI Report on Inequality in the Sahel Discussed at Inequality Forum
DFI has drafted a report on Inequality in the Sahel for Oxfam West Africa, which was discussed at a regional inequality multi-stakeholder forum in Ouagadougou. The paper emphasised the close links between growing inequality, climate change and political instability and insecurity in the region, which has also been also confronted by triple crises of COVID-19, debt and austerity. In this context, governments are doing far too little to reduce inequality, with more than 2/3 of the workforce having no labour rights leading to extreme wage inequality; governments spending well below needed amounts on education, health and social protection; and overdependence on unprogressive taxes such as VAT. It recommends a new social contract for the region focussed on enhancing labour rights, more progressive taxation and enhanced social spending.
Call to Action to Save SDG10, New York 18 July
DFI is co-chairing a Call to Action to Save SDG10 and reduce inequality dramatically across the world, with UNAIDS, Oxfam International, and Pathfinders-CIC at New York University. The partners will be holding an invitation-only lunch with high-level delegates to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum reviewing the SDGs, on 18th July. Please find the concept note for the meeting here, and the policy brief here.
28 April – DFI Co-Sponsor Meeting Launching Call to Action on SDG10
At the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, Winnie Byanyima of UNAIDS and Matthew Martin of DFI co-chaired a meeting to launch a Call to Action on SDG10. This Call will demand a reform of the way the international system monitors inequality, to make it track genuine inequality across all levels of income and wealth, rather than “shared prosperity” between the middle class and the poor. The meeting assembled academic, civil society, church and UN experts, and agreed on a plan of action for 2023-24 to change the monitoring indicators used by the UN in SDG10 (Reducing Inequality) and by the World Bank in its corporate goals and scorecard. The next steps will be to organise an event among UN member states at the UN High Level Political Forum on the SDGs in New York in July 2023.
OMAN: Commonwealth Meridian – March 2022 to February 2023
DFI was chosen by the Omani government through competitive bidding to deploy Meridian at Oman’s Debt Management Office. The project included computerising external and domestic direct government and government-guaranteed debt. The debt databases were implemented from scratch using Excel data entry sheets and manual entry or automatic upload into Meridian. DFI and the Commonwealth Secretariat also worked together to enhance Meridian’s treatment of Islamic loan products. In three workshops, DMO staff were trained on interpreting loan and credit agreements, and intermediate and advanced use of Meridian. DMO is now seeking to expand use of Meridian in Oman by linking to its Integrated Financial Management Information System.
14 October - Washington DC – A Nordic Initiative to Resolve the New Debt Crisis
DFI and Norwegian Church Aid launched a new report on how to solve the new debt crisis, at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. The report shows that the crisis is widespread, affecting 114 countries, and concentrated in those countries accessing capital markets (not in former HIPCs). Debt service is far higher than spending on education, health, social protection and climate. Debt to domestic and multilateral creditors are key components in many countries, and will need to be restructured. The report analyses in detail the lessons of past debt relief initiatives, and makes 10 sets of recommendations to ensure that debt relief is: provided to all types of countries, based on their SDG financing needs, negotiated rapidly, including all necessary creditors, and providing protection against lawsuits. In addition, it recommends measures to avoid future crises by maximising accountability to domestic stakeholders; protecting against future predatory and corrupt debts; building country negotiating capacity; and providing lower-cost development financing.
