Category: Reviving multilateralism

SDG summit-development matters
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Une ambition renouvelée pour la coopération pour le développement à l’OCDE

Par María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Directrice de la coopération pour le développement à l’OCDE

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Le récent sommet de Paris pour un Nouveau Pacte Financier Mondial a tourné une page de la coopération pour le développement écrite en 1944 à Bretton Woods. Créés alors, la Banque internationale pour la reconstruction et le développement (BIRD) et le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) avaient un champ d’action limité pour un monde qui comptait moins d’une centaine de pays indépendants. Les priorités étaient la reconstruction de l’Europe et l’équilibre des balances de paiements, comme en témoigne le prêt pionnier de la BIRD à la France. Depuis, le monde a considérablement évolué, avec plus de 150 pays aspirant au statut de pays à revenu élevé, plus de 650 millions de personnes en situation d’extrême pauvreté, et des défis urgents liés au changement climatique et à la perte de biodiversité.

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Development Matters
SDG summit-development matters
Reviving multilateralism

A renewed ambition for development co-operation at the OECD

By María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Director, Development Co-operation directorate, OECD

The recent Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact turned a page of the development co-operation history that was written in Bretton Woods in 1944. Back then, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were founded with a limited scope, catering to a world of fewer than a hundred independent countries. The focus was on Europe’s reconstruction and balance of payments, illustrated by France’s pioneering IBRD loan. However, the landscape has drastically changed, with over 150 countries striving for high-income status, more than 650 million people in extreme poverty, and urgent challenges stemming from climate change and biodiversity loss.

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Development Matters
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