As the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank draw to a close, Jean Saldanha, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) reflects on a crucial, but disappointing, week in development finance.

Civil society activists from across the world have come together online to sound the #DebtAlarm, calling upon world leaders to act on debt cancellation. 

Today the G20 announced a six-month extension to the Debt Service Suspension Initiative. It also extended the period of debt payments suspension from four years to six years. In addition, the G20 announced a common framework for debt treatments beyond the DSSI, the details of which will be announced in November.

• Almost 60 per cent of the Bank’s fast track Covid-19 Facility (US$ 8 billion) is being allocated through its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Publicly available information indicates that as of June 2020, 68 per cent of IFC Covid-19 projects targeted financial institutions
• It also shows that 50 per cent of IFC-supported companies are either majority-owned by multinational companies or are themselves international conglomerates

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered health, economic and social crises of unprecedented proportions that have the potential to seriously undermine the (already slow) progress made by developing countries towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Today the OECD published its blueprints for how to repair the global corporate tax system, which follows an update that the OECD provided in January 2020. 

The Philippines has been in a vulnerable position since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This vulnerability can be explained by social, economic, health and financial factors. As a result of these pre-existing conditions, the crisis has been acutely felt by the population of the country. 

The upcoming Development Assistance Committee (DAC) High Level Meeting (HLM) provides an opportunity for DAC Members to commit to doing development better. This joint civil society submission represents the views of a group of 26 civil society organisations (CSOs) from the global south and the global north.

More than 500 civil society organisations are calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to immediately stop promoting austerity around the world, and instead advocate policies that advance gender justice, reduce inequality, and decisively put people and planet first.