News Selection – Finance for Sustainable Development

11/4/2018: Preliminary data for 2018 paints a worrying picture in which bilateral assistance to least-developed countries fell 3% from 2017, aid to Africa was down 4%, and humanitarian aid dropped 8%. Source: Devex

3/4/2019: Figures released by the Jubilee Debt Campaign, based on IMF and World Bank databases, show that developing country debt payments increased by 85% between 2010 and 2018.

Source: Jubilee Debt Campaign

19/3/2019: Development finance institutions have gained prominence, as the role of the private sector has been accepted, and because their work can be put in direct service of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. Source: Devex

13/12/2018: The US Agency for International Development has launched a new private sector engagement policy designed to change the culture and operations of the organization as it works to help countries develop. Source: Devex

11/12/2018: The UN has increasingly embraced the corporate sector, most recently to raise finance needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Does this engagement compromise the Goals? Source: Inter Press Service

21/11/2018: Two recent assessments of aid donors used radically different approaches – a top down technical assessment of aid quality, and a bottom up survey of aid recipients. The differences between their findings are interesting.

Source: From Poverty to Power

2/11/2018: Germany and the Netherlands have pledged to fund special forces in Niger to control its border and prevent illegal migration. Niger is a transit country for thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe. Source: News24

Tread Softly Comment: This is the trending goal of contemporary foreign aid. Less poverty reduction, infrastructure or governance in the fragile state; more border police to protect Europe. Relevant Briefing: Aid Politics

11/10/2018: The new CEO of a major aid transparency group says the movement needs to change its ways, and make its data more user-friendly to encourage civil society groups to hold donors to account. Source: Devex

8/10/2018: A new briefing shows that the private sector is the largest source of loans to African countries, accounting for 55% of interest payments. Campaigners are calling for more public disclosure of new loans. Source: Jubilee Debt Campaign

Tread Softly Comment: African government debt payments are at their highest level since 2001 and it's clear that the recent rate of increase is unsustainable. This research focuses on challenging the view that Chinese finance is behind the worrying statistics. It concludes that Chinese debt to the African countries listed by the IMF and World Bank as most at risk is no more significant than loans from other sources. Relevant Briefing: Sovereign Debt

24/9/2018: A “surge in financing and investments” is needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the UN plan of action agreed by Member States, to transform the world, the Secretary-General has said. Source: UN News