Development Finance International
30 June 2024 - Debt Management Facility Phase 3 Partnership Contract Ends
Our sister company Debt Relief International has been an implementing partner of the World Bank Debt Management Facility (DMF) run by the World Bank, ever since it was launched in 2008. Our phase 3 grant agreement to help the World Bank implement the programme began in January 2022, and between then and June 2024 we assisted in 10 missions, acting as one of the World Bank’s main partners in Francophone countries.
Six of these missions were Debt Management Performance (DeMPA) assessment missions, in which the mission assessed the debt management performance of the government in Burundi (June 2023), Cabo Verde ((March 2022), Madagascar (February 2023), Mauritania (November 2023), Niger (March 2022) and Togo (Sept 2022). Three of them were debt management Reform Plan missions arising out of earlier DeMPAs (Congo-Brazzaville in November 2023; DR Congo in April 2023; and Madagascar in July-August 2023); and one was a mission to help the government of Burundi prepare a Medium-Term Debt Strategy.
DRI's contribution to these missions has been productive and useful for enhancing political dialogue on debt in these countries, and strengthening their debt management capacities. Our grant expired on 30 June 2024, and we look forward to working with the Bank in future phases.
24 June IBP/DFI, Webinar on Debt Accountability to Domestic Stakeholders
IBP and DFI jointly led a webinar to present the findings of DFI’s scoping study on how to make public debt policy decisions more accountable to domestic stakeholders, such as parliaments, audit offices and civil society. The study was commissioned by IBP and funded by the Gates Foundation. In the webinar, DFI discussed legal, institutional and political frameworks and contexts for accountability; and practical steps to improve accountability at each stage of the public debt management cycle. It particularly highlighted good practices from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Cameroon, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam. IBP highlighted how the results of the study chimed well with their findings in the 2024 Open Budget Survey that accountability on debt and financing issues in the budget cycle is very weak, in terms of parliamentary oversight and especially public participation. The resulting publication will be appearing on this website shortly.
16 June - Inequality and Instability in the Sahel
On 16 June DFI completed a regional report for Oxfam based on the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index, analysing the relationship between inequality and instability in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Senegal). The report, Confronting Inequality and the Polycrisis in the Sahel: the Urgent Need for Progressive Policies analyses the growing inequality and instability in 2020-24. It finds that inequality is reducing growth by 5% a year, and being aggravated by high debt and defence spending, and austerity. High levels of informality and failure to enforce formal labour rights, leave the countries at the bottom worldwide for wage inequality. They are spending far less than needed to reach the SDGs on education, health and social protection; and though their tax systems look progressive on paper, they depend far too much on collecting regressive VAT – so their fiscal systems do little to reverse wage inequality. The report urges increases in collection of progressive income and wealth taxes, as well as debt relief, to reduce inequality and instability, and reduce pressures for international migration.
7 June, Debt Swaps for School Meals: Opportunities and Constraints - School Meals Coalition
DFI has completed a study for the Sustainable Financing Initiative of the School Meals Coalition, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through the Education Development Center. The study looks at the potential for debt swaps to be used to fund school meals, which will be essential to increasing the numbers of children completing secondary education and reaching SDG4. The study examines prospects for debt conversions across the developing world, focusing on case studies of Ghana, Honduras, Kenya, Senegal and Sierra Leone. It finds that the prospects for debt swaps are limited, but opportunities could be expanded in several ways. It concludes that the main emphasis should be on advocating broader debt relief which could free huge fiscal space for sustainable spending on school meals. The study will be launched in September.
21 May & 6 June, New Debt Sustainability Studies for FES by DFI
Gail Hurley and Matthew Martin of DFI have contributed two chapters to a forthcoming book on Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the International Financial Architecture, which have now been published as separate studies. Gail’s study is on How Transparency Makes Debt Sustainability Analysis a Trusted and Effective Tool , and looks at how to make DSA tools and analysis more transparent and accessible to stakeholders, and preparation of DSAs a more participatory exercise, especially in borrowing countries. Matthew’s study is on How to Ensure Debt Sustainability Accelerates Sustainable Development, and looks at how the DSA frameworks could be modified to incorporate the spending costs, financing needs and positive growth multipliers of spending on the social and environmental SDGs.
- 30 May, Financing the End of AIDS by 2030 in Africa
- 29 January, Washington. TCD IMF Seminar on Integrating Climate Change into the LIC-DSF
- 11- December, Berlin. Expert Roundtable: Bringing All Creditors on Board
- 29 November - New Debt Service Watch briefing: The debt crisis is putting climate adaptation spending out of reach
