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20 years after Monterrey, the UN Financing for Development process is as important as ever

This week, exactly 20 years ago, world leaders adopted the United Nation’s Monterrey Consensus. They committed to “Confronting the challenges of financing for development” with a global response and to creating a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system. The Consensus included the critical recognition that in a globalizing interdependent world economy “National development efforts need to be supported by an enabling international economic environment”. This was the birth of the UN’s Financing for Development (FfD) process which now – 20 years down the line – is as important as ever. 

Read our opinion piece here.

News & analysis

Civil society warns World Bank: The Business Enabling Environment Project is a rebranding of the disgraced Doing Business Report and it must be abandoned

Last week the World Bank closed a consultation process on their plans to replace the discontinued Doing Business Report (DBR) with the Business Environment Enabling Project (BEE). A coalition of CSOs has delivered a strongly-worded submission arguing this is a rebranding exercise which does not address the root problems in the Bank's engagement in private sector advice. 

Civil society statement regarding IMF’s upcoming first-ever gender strategy

by Bretton Woods Project

The IMF is developing its first-ever gender mainstreaming strategy with the ambition to integrate a gender lens across core operations in lending, surveillance and technical assistance.

This month, a group of 16 civil society and women’s rights organisations - including Eurodad - together with an additional 30 signatories, submitted a joint statement in response to the concept note of this strategy. The group has formulated a set of key policy asks grounded in a commitment to critically assess the gendered impact of the Fund’s conventional fiscal, monetary, and labour market policy advice.

Read the statement here.

Reports

Analysing European Union Institutions’ Flows for Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD)

by ActionAid

This report analyses the first round of Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) data from European Union (EU) Institutions. It examines the scope of what has been reported by the EU Institutions and identifies trends and issues arising from the first round. 

Useful resources

Monterrey+20. A primer on the UN’s Financing for Development process 

by Global Policy Forum and Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR

This briefing paper gives an overview of the current challenges in different development finance action areas, including an overview of the UN’s FfD process and international agreements on Financing for Development. Based on the analysis, it identifies 10 key levers for financing sustainable development.

IPCC report: what does it say about debt and climate finance?

By Jubilee Debt Campaign

The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognised that addressing unsustainable debt is central to responding to the climate crisis. Debt creates a vicious circle, where lower-income countries’ inability to invest in adaptation exposes them to ever greater harm from climate disasters, driving them deeper into debt to pay for reconstruction.

Job vacancies

European Union (EU) Advocacy Advisor

ActionAid Europe | Brussels | Deadline: 30 March

Events

22 March | A Feminist and Decolonial View on Debt and Climate Change

Rewatch our webinar Feminist and Decolonial View on Debt and Climate Change, held as part of the NGO CSW66. The recording is available in Spanish and English.

14 March | Tax justice for a feminist and transformative recovery

To kick-off the Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women's Rights 2022, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice organised a discussion on how to advance tax justice to foster a feminist and transformative economic recovery, and achieve gender equality and women’s rights.

14 March | FORO INTERNACIONAL - Deuda externa y desarrollo económico

Rewatch the webinar by LATINDADD on how debt is an almost obligatory source of financing for developing countries for which the public will pay the prize. The webinar was held in Spanish. 

Coming soon! 

9-10 June | Eurodad Conference 2022

Save the date for the Eurodad conference 2022 - Reboot the system: Defining joint strategies for economic justice!

Registrations will open soon. 

This newsletter has been produced with co-funding from the European Union, Bread for the World and Norad. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Eurodad and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the funders.