Francophone Finance Ministers from LICs met on 8th October in Lima, Peru, in the margins of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Amadou Ba, Minister of Economy, Finance and Planning of Senegal, represented by Mr. Abdoul Aziz Tall, Minister at the Presidency in charge of the Plan Sénégal Emergent, and co-chaired by Mr. François Maurice Gervais Rakotoarimanana, Minister of Finance and Budget of Madagascar.

DFI joined a World Bank MTDS mission to Malé, The Maldives. The mission took place at the request of the Ministry of Finance, and focused on providing technical assistance in debt management strategy formulation. The mission shared the Bank-Fund framework for Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) development, and jointly with a government team, applied it to The Maldives. In the process, the team provided training on basic cost-risk analysis, data preparation, and preparation of a debt management strategy document.

DFI helped to coordinate this seminar for New Rules, which brought together experts from the IMF, World Bank, developing and developed country governments and the private sector. DFI also made a presentation on the need for fundamental global tax reform going beyond the BEPS initiative and the Addis FfD conference, and the implications for technical assistance needs for low and lower-middle income developing countries.

Did the Third International Conference on Financing for Development deliver and meet expectations? And how should the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be financed?

In this blog hosted by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Matthew Martin reflects on the outcomes of the Conference held in Addis Ababa last July and its implications on the financing of the SGDs, and makes recommendations to ensure they are efficiently financed.  

Last month in New York, the first UN Principles on Sovereign Debt Restructuring Processes were unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly.

Agreed at the Ad Hoc Committee on Sovereign Debt Restructuring Processes, this set of nine principles builds on the UNCTAD Roadmap released earlier this year and is intended to guide future restructuring processes. It could serve as a basis for future deliberations in this area and seeks to limit the actions of vulture funds.

A formal UN GA Resolution is to be adopted during the next General Assembly, which will officially adopt the new UN principles by not just the Committee but the whole General Assembly, and mandate a follow up process. 

As the second phase of the Seco-funded assistance to Sudan on debt strategy formulation, DRI held a technical training workshop with 18 government officials from the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Sudan. The workshop trained officials in Debt Relief Analysis using Debt Pro, in Debt Sustainability Analysis using the LIC-DSF, and in cost and risk analysis.

A new report from Results UK uses Kenya as a case study to explore the implications of scaling-up Universal Health Care (UHC) in a country graduating from lower income to lower middle income status, and the challenge this will pose the country as Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) levels for health reduces in future years.

While acknowledging the need for ODA to continue to play a vital role, they also point to the increasingly important role domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) will have to play in the context of stagnating aid - especially when aid has previously provided close to 50% of the health budget (rising to 70% in some highly donor dependent sub-sections, such as HIV & AIDS).

Are African countries meeting the health spending targets? Based on the latest GSW spending data, this scorecard developed by GSW and the Africa Health Budget Network provides an at-a-glance view of 30 African countries’ performance in reaching health spending targets.

The scorecard assesses performance on 4 indicators:

1.  Is government health spending consistent with country wealth?
2.  Is health spending prioritised in the government budget?
3.  Does the government spend enough on each person’s health?
4.  Is government health spending transparent?

13.15-14.45 @ Elilly Hotel (Classic Hall)

Come and hear what developing countries and independent experts have to say about what is wrong with the international tax system and what needs to be done to make it fairer and more progressive.

To finance the SDGs and build a just world without poverty, the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa must produce a communiqué which encourages the international community to reform the international tax system fundamentally, going beyond the BEPS/AEOI initiatives, so that developing countries can mobilise theresources needed for their development.

This side event will allow stakeholders to discuss the priority global and national measures which are needed to ensure a much more significant increase in tax revenues in developing countries, and the initiatives being taken to introduce such measures. The discussion will cover changing tax treaties, eliminating tax exemptions, combatting illicit flows, and going way beyond BEPS in the fight against corporate tax evasion and avoidance.

The Belgian Government took action on 1st July 2015 has to prevent creditors from exploiting the poorest countries in the world through the Belgian courts. Supporters of international financial regulation have welcomed the country’s pioneering move to pass a law reinforcing Belgian tribunals’ legal framework to tackle so-called “vulture funds”.

The legislation will now cut the wind out of creditors’ sails from using Belgian courts to extract harsh and inequitable payments from poor countries for debts that the investment companies or funds have bought for a fraction of the cost. Belgian tribunals will now be equipped with more effective tools to implement a more stringent regulation against such speculative behaviour and will therefore ensure developing countries are protected from companies’ exploitative practices which hinder their economic growth and development.

For more information, you can read a blog on this issue by Eurodad and consult an article (in French) by Belgian NGO CNCD-11.11.11 which has been actively advocating for years for this legislation to come to fruition.