Development Finance International

At the global level, DFI has become a regular source of advice for many international organisations, OECD donors and CSO coalitions on potential reforms to the international financial architecture, debt relief and sustainability initiatives, aid effectiveness and policy issues, and foreign private capital. For more on the reports resulting from these projects, please see the commissioned research page.

DFI’s extensive experience of providing advisory services includes helping developing countries to:

• conduct Debt Sustainability Analysis, design national debt policies and strategies, and set national borrowing limits;

• negotiate relief on multilateral debt, bilateral Paris Club and non-Paris Club debt, and commercial debt, as well as forestalling or defending litigation, partly under the auspices of the HIPC Capacity-Building Programme.

• design and implement policies for external resource mobilisation, including making decisions on accessing international capital markets, getting a country credit rating, designing an aid policy so as to maximise the quality and effectiveness of their aid, and implementing that policy by negotiating with aid donors to change their behaviour

• restructure their domestic debt portfolios and design new issuance strategies to deepen their markets, reduce interest rates and lengthen maturities.

• reinforce their policies to attract foreign private capital (FDI, portfolio flows, private sector lending), diversify source countries and host sectors/regions, reduce its cost and increase its sustainability and contribution to national development. For suggestions on how to design a policy action plan in this area (page 12), click here.

Where possible we always prefer to provide advice in a way which maximises the training of national officials so as to build their own technical capacity, ensuring that they do not have to call on us or other advisers repeatedly; and allows them to take the lead in advising their own policymakers rather than relying on us. In addition, as these advisory services are provided on a non-profit basis, they are considerably cheaper than those of commercial organisations.

Latest work DFI carried out in this area:

January 2013 - DfID Seminar on Strengthening Mutual Accountability

DFI presented lessons from experience at a seminar organised by DfID, together with presenters from DfID Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. The seminar discussed key lessons about the need to tailor MA processes to different countries (eg MICs, LICs and fragile states), closer collaboration between MA and New Deal processes, generating political commitment by donor and recipient governments, enhancing inclusion of parliaments and civil society, and capacity-building needs. The DFI presentation is available here. 

1-2 August 2012 - Debt Sustainability Framework and IMF Non-Concessional Borrowing Policy

Financed by OIF as part of its support to Francophone Finance Ministers, DFI spoke at the African IMF-World Bank Caucus meeting of Finance Ministers in Kinshasa on the issues of Debt Sustainability – Reviewing the LIC-DSF framework; and Changing the IMF’s Non-Concessional Borrowing Policy. The first presentation is available here and the second here. 

June-September 2012 – Mutual Accountability Support to Afghanistan

DFI provided support to the Government of Afghanistan and UK DfID in preparing the content and implementation mechanisms for the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework, through which Afghanistan and its donors will hold one another responsible for the delivery of promises made at the Tokyo donor conference in July 2012. The main focus of the work was on reducing conditionality levels for Afghanistan, increasing accountability targets for donors, and suggesting strong implementation mechanisms and closer coordination with New Deal initiatives. 

June 2012 - DFI contributes to Commonwealth work on Innovative Financing

DFI is leading the production of a Handbook on Innovative Financing for Development for the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Handbook, due to be published in Q3 2012, uses a unique set of Principles to help developing countries to identify and assess a diverse range of new instruments in order to plug the huge development financing gaps necessary to meet their MDGs, address environmental challenges, and respond to exogenous shocks. It also raises awareness of innovative instruments presently under discussion. The Handbook is being targeted primarily at decision makers in developing countries. 

10 May 2012 – Mutual Accountability in Afghanistan

DFI has been commissioned to support the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in building a Mutual Accountability Framework to hold the government and its development partners responsible for delivery of aid results, after the international conference in Tokyo scheduled for July 2012. 

5 September 2011 - BMZ Seminar on "Managing Sovereign Debt Crises beyond HIPC"

DFI helped to mobilize Development Countries Participants for the Workshop "Managing Sovereign Debt Crises beyond HIPC" hosted by the Federal Ministry of Development Co-operation (BMZ) in Berlin in June. For the organizers final report click here.

DFI is currently providing technical assistance in debt management to Guinea. A six-month expert attachment is focusing on building capacity and training in debt management mechanisms, on the design of debt management and monitoring tools, as well as providing advisory services to the Department for Debt and Aid Management. 

13-16 April 2011 - Support to Meetings on Sudanese Debt Relief

DFI, funded by Seco, supported the Government of Sudan in preparing for Technical Working Group and Round Table meetings at the BWI Spring Meetings, which discussed the potential cancellation of Sudanese debt as part of the secession of Southern Sudan and subject to continuing progress on peace in Darfur. Northern and Southern Sudanese officials announced their agreement that the existing debt of Sudan will remain with the North, subject to strong commitment by the international community to cancel most of the debt at the earliest possible dates. They also announced strong progress on debt reconciliation and an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy, as well as the design of an outreach strategy to creditors. 

9 February 2011 - DFI Contributes to UNCTAD Expert Meetings

DFI participated in UNCTAD's Peer Review Meeting in Geneva on 1 February, to discuss sections of the World Investment Report 2011. It also presented synthesis findings at UNCTAD's Multi-Year Expert Meeting on Investment for Development during 2-4 February. The meeting was well attended by international experts, and a number of countries from the SSA and LAC regions. Discussions focussed on the nexus between public and private, domestic and foreign investment, looking at different types of capital flows, and the role of public investment in boosting growth, private investment, and industrial policy.