The outcome of this week's Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF show that the institutions are moving in the wrong direction. 

Voices from affected communities will challenge EU’s flagship strategy on energy, climate and inequality at panel event.

• Proposed 200 billion external action budget is welcome - but design changes could have 'profound consequences'
• Introduction of EU-level "own resources" must support a genuine reform of international taxation

The involvement of private finance in infrastructure and services provision is not new. However, the focus on leverage private finance has increased in recent decades, particularly after the adoption of the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), at the Third UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD). Despite that, the initiatives promoted have proved to be far from what is needed, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seem increasingly out of reach. The current FfD process – as the only global space in which all countries have an equal voice – has the potential for transformational development in the global south. As the Fourth FfD Conference (FfD4) in Sevilla approaches, there is an opportunity for a thorough overhaul of private finance in development.

This blog first appeared on POLITICO Europe.

Written by Christina Fenandez-Duran (Oxfam Interim Head of EU Office), Javier García de la Oliva (Head of Country Engagement and Transformation Europe and Americas at ActionAid International) and Jean Saldanha (Director at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)).

Read the piece in full on EU Observer