DFI took part in the first meeting of a civil society advisory panel on Social Spending in IMF Programmes, which will input into the redesign of IMF conditionality related to social spending.

IMF staff and panelists discussed the scope of the review, including the sectors to be covered, the need to take account of broader IMF work on inequality and therefore to look at comprehensive education, health and social protection coverage, and the successes and failures of existing conditionalities such as indicative social spending floors. They also contributed ideas on existing analysis including the GSW reports and database, as well as names of other experts for the reviewers to contact. Further meetings will be held, culminating in a public discussion at the BWI Annual Meetings in October.

DFI chaired a session at a Commonwealth meeting on “Perspectives on the Panama Papers”, looking at the current efforts being made to combat illicit financial flows by sharing information among countries and citizens. Panelists debated the role of “tax havens” in developed and developing countries and discussed a series of measures which small island developing states and UK crown dependencies in particular could take to contribute to global tax transparency and accountability. The outcome statement from the event is available here.

To coincide with the seminar, the Commonwealth published this report on the impact of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations in Commonwealth Developing Countries.

DRI participated in the first meeting of the Jubilee Debt Campaign Academic Advisory Network. Participants exchanged information on their latest studies of debt issues ranging from analysis of the debt crisis and negotiations in Greece, through to latest analysis of debt sustainability in developing countries, the role of PPPs, and the impact of the Argentine vulture funds’ decisions on future debt resolution mechanisms. DRI highlighted its recent work on debt sustainability and its forthcoming work on productive spending and debt.

DFI helped to facilitate a meeting in New York on the role of the IFIs (G20, UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD and FSB) in combating in-country income inequality. The meeting was co-organised by New Rules for Global Finance and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and assembled academics, representatives of the IFIs and independent analysts to examine how their mandates could be interpreted to fight inequality in an SDG context.

The meeting reached strong conclusions on key “transmission mechanisms” through which the institutions should be expected to reduce inequality. It will be a key input into a New Rules report on the IFIs and Inequality to be launched early in 2017.

The latest Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa published by the IMF reveals that despite a recent extended period of strong economic boost, many sub-Saharan African countries have borne the brunt of multiple economic shocks and are experiencing a sharp fall in growth.

This report points to the decline in commodity prices, tighter financing conditions and a severe drought in southern and eastern Africa for causing the trends currently affecting most sub-Saharan African countries. Growth fell in 2015 to its lowest level in some 15 years and is expected to slow further to 3 percent in 2016, affecting countries to varying degrees according to circumstances, and with the exception of oil importers which register a robust economic activity.

While the IMF projects that the region’s medium-term prospects remain favourable, it urges countries to adopt a policy reset to promote growth and makes recommendations to respond to the current macroeconomic challenges.  

DRI participated in the World Bank Debt Management Facility Stakeholder Forum in Lusaka, taking part in the ICG governance meeting of the facility, and making a presentation on Debt Sustainability Status and Prospects in the Forum itself. The presentation, based on recent work for DFID and the AfDB, emphasized that an increasing number of countries have unsustainable debt burdens which are crowding out spending on the SDGs, and another round of global debt relief is on the cards.

DFI participated in a joint IMF/World Bank mission to Niamey aimed at assisting the Interministerial Debt Committee’s technical commission to devise a medium-term debt strategy (MTDS) for 2016-2020. Assistance was also provided in developing an annual borrowing plan in accordance with the national commitment made with the IMF.

The key conclusion was that there is a real capacity to formulate and, above all, to evaluate the implementation of the MTDS, whose results are systematically annexed to Niger’s budget bills. The MTDS was conducted in an inclusive and participatory manner and should soon be approved and validated by the Interministerial Debt Committee which is chaired by Niger’s Prime Minister.  

Kinshasa welcomed the last mission of the technical assistance project supporting DRC in reforming its debt management laws and design a national debt strategy. Held on 4-29 April, this mission closed an extensive African Development Bank-funded programme of activities started in September 2015.

Launched with a first mission to evaluate the country’s institutional framework and agree on a work plan, the technical support stretched over 8 missions and over 8 months to produce the following results:

Tax Inspectors Without Borders, a joint OCDE/UNDP initiative, held a webinar in May 2016. Launched in July 2015 in Addis Ababa, the project aims at transferring tax audit knowledge and skills to tax administrations in developing countries, working on real cases. In keeping with a practical learning approach, experts work with local officials from tax administrations on current audits and on issues concerning international tax audits.

The Network of Finance Ministers and Experts from Francophone LICs met in Washington, DC in the margins of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Convened by Senegal, the Network's chair country, the meetings were twofold: finance experts and country focal points met on Thursday 14 April to discuss their priorities in terms of fiscal policies in favour of the mobilisation of domestic resources to finance the SDGs. On the agenda were the presentation of the results of the technical workshop held in Dakar, Senegal, in December 2015 on fiscal policies and preliminary outcomes of the revenue study. DFI also introduced the terms of reference of a new study on public-private partnerships (PPP) to be launched in 2016-2017 which will draw on countries' experiences to determine how PPPs can best fit in in their financing strategies.