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Bodo Ellmers

31 May 2017 10:21:08

Last week’s United Nations’ Financing for Development Forum in New York was notable for being the first major event to admit in a formal outcome document that at the current pace, the Sustainable Development Goals will not be reached. The Forum - which deals with all aspects of finance and the financial architecture that regulates finance - planned to push reforms that would make finance work for development. Progress was meagre however, as political blockages still need to be overcome.   The outcome document of the 2017 Financing for Development (FfD) Forum paints an alarming picture: “The current global trajectory will not deliver the goal of eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions by 2030”. A key reason is the lack of adequate funding for the SDGs. While there ...

Mathieu Vervynckt

13 May 2015 10:32:54

This blog was first published in Dutch on Vice Versa Magazine How can investments in and for the private sector contribute to development cooperation? This is more or less the key question on the agenda during the current Financing for Development (FfD) negotiations in New York. According to the European Union (EU), the answer lies with the risky use of public resources as a catalyst for private investment. However, this outsourcing of development cooperation to the private sector is accompanied by a serious lack of evidence about the real development impact, transparency, accountability and developing country ownership.   In a way, you have to give the EU credit. By means of a well thought-through communication strategy, the EU has managed to place private finance at the heart of the ...