Category: Reviving multilateralism

poverty, climate, oda, flood, development, matters
Green transition, Reviving multilateralism

Poverty reduction and climate finance: pieces of the same development puzzle

By Susanna Gable, Deputy Director, Development Policy and Finance, Gates Foundation

Economic growth, poverty reduction, and climate action are deeply interlinked: none can move ahead without the other. So why isn’t more happening?

Our recent report A transition approach to poverty reduction and climate finance – The missing link to implementation from the Global Council on SDG1 points to the lack of ‘transition thinking’ both in policy and financing. It argues that to achieve poverty reduction goals alongside necessary climate actions, we need a just green transition supported by policy and financing that takes the specific development context and level of economic transition of each country into account.

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

The Time Has Come for Multi-dimensional Development Metrics – India’s G20 Presidency

By G A Tadas, Visiting Fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, India. Views expressed are personal.

GDP has long served as the key indicator of a country’s development, but is this the only factor that matters in citizens’ lives? Does more money categorically result in better lives?  The India G20 presidency is looking for other metrics to complement these measures.

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

Stopping the leaks: a fresh look at tax breaks for foreign aid

By Rachel Morris, Policy Analyst – Financing for Sustainable Development (Development Co-operation Directorate), and Joseph Stead, Senior Policy Analyst – Tax and Development (Centre for Tax Policy and Administration), OECD

Faced with the worst economic downturn since World War II, developing country governments are scrambling to maximise resources to stay afloat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, developing countries took a massive hit to their government revenues: USD 689 billion fewer revenues were generated in 2019 compared to 2020.1  The poorest countries are now faced with an increasing gap to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to higher financing needs and fewer resources to spend on recovery. In addition to declining government revenues, increasing pressures on available foreign aid mean that resources to avoid debt and climate crises are stretched2. With government revenues in developing countries expected to remain almost 20% below pre-pandemic levels, every penny counts, especially those coming from tax revenues. But tax exemptions can stand in the way of maximising tax revenues.

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Development Matters
Digital public infrastructure concept
Reviving multilateralism

G20 – a unique opportunity to advance digital public infrastructure

By Liv Marte Nordhaug, Co-Lead, Digital Public Goods Alliance

Faced with recurrent shocks and crises, countries everywhere are looking to build more resilient and inclusive digital foundations for public and private service delivery. As they enter this next stage of their digital journeys, advanced and emerging economies alike should apply an infrastructure mindset that drives inclusion, empowerment, and innovation. India’s G20 presidency offers a unique opportunity to convene the international community around advancing this agenda.

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Development Matters
Debt relief in developing countries
Reviving multilateralism

It is time to give highly indebted countries a fresh start

By Rachid Bouhia, Economist, and Patrick Kacmarczyk, Consultant, UNCTAD[1]

Fast deterioration of financial conditions in the Global South

Sustained investments are a prerequisite for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Without stable financial conditions, however, these investments are not possible. Roller coaster capital markets prevent investors in the real economy from predicting their rate of return, leaving only financial speculators in the game.   

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Development Matters
Development finance
Reviving multilateralism

Four ways to make development finance fairer and more effective

By Harald Hirschhofer, Senior Advisor, TCX

Low-income country debts are mostly owed to multilateral and bilateral official lenders. Unfortunately, these development institutions’ default practice is to lend – from a borrower’s perspective – in foreign currency, i.e. USD, Euros or Yen. As they are risk conservative, they put the currency risk on the shoulders of low-income country borrowers. Although on concessional terms, such hard-currency development finance frequently turns out to be more expensive than borrowers can afford. The true costs of borrowing are hidden behind a veil of currency risk.  

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Development Matters
India G20
Reviving multilateralism

India at the helm of the G20

By Ambassador Dr. Mohan Kumar, Former Indian Ambassador to France and Dean/Professor, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India

On 1 December, India assumed the presidency of the G20 for the first time.  This is a momentous event for India and for the G20, at a crucial time in the world.

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Development Matters
Multilateral development system
Reviving multilateralism

Three challenges threatening the multilateral development system and possible solutions

By Abdoulaye Fabregas, Economist, Jieun Kim, Policy Analyst, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, and Olivier Cattaneo, Head, Policy Analysis and Strategy Unit, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, and Adjunct Professor, Paris School of International Affairs in SciencesPo

Halfway into the implementation timeframe of Agenda 2030, the multilateral development system is under growing pressure, faced with the continued fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war launched by Russia against Ukraine. The war has aggravated global inflationary pressures; food and energy prices are soaring, threatening the livelihoods of the most vulnerable. This week, the UN launched a record USD 51.5 billion humanitarian appeal for 2023. In this challenging context, our new report shows that the multilateral development system is confronting three paradoxes.

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Development Matters
debt
Africa, Reviving multilateralism

Why today’s debt crisis requires a different kind of thinking

By David McNair, Executive Director for Global Policy at The ONE Campaign and Non-Resident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Daouda Sembene, CGD Distinguished Nonresident Fellow and AfriCatalyst CEO

African countries have more than doubled their debt stocks in the last decade. In an era of historically low interest rates that made sense, given the continent’s massive infrastructure needs, high security spending and rising social expenditure driven by a rapidly growing population. But that era is now over. 

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Development Matters
Ukraine wheat food exports
Reviving multilateralism

Preventing developing economy debt disasters

By Rabah Arezki, Former Chief Economist and Vice President at the African Development Bank, Former Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region and Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School & Mahmoud Mohieldin UN Special Envoy for Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. 

The world’s breadbasket is being wrecked by war. Ukraine and Russia account for 30% of global wheat and barley exports and are leading exporters of other grains. The two countries are also the source of nearly 70% of the world’s sunflower oil exports, while Russia accounts for 13% of all crude petroleum exports. As the conflict in Ukraine rages and sanctions on Russia escalate, food and energy prices – which were rising even before Russia invaded Ukraine – are spiking in countries far away from the front lines, with devastating implications for the world’s most vulnerable communities.

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Development Matters