Development financing today: Serving whose interest?

Financing for sustainable development today is at a crossroads. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), capacities for such financing are “under stress,” while financing needs are increasing.

Ongoing discussions for the implementation of the current sustainable development agenda take place in a context of protracted crisis, slow growth a decade post-2008, rising debt concerns, and market concentration and centralization in multinational and transnational corporations. Growing inequalities is the trend, and millions still subsist below USD 5.50 a day. Civil  society, especially people’s organisations and movements at the forefront of struggles for rights and genuine development, are threatened with repressive state measures.

These trends are urgent challenges for the mantra of “leaving no one behind.” Faced with such a landscape, the implementation of the current development goals–especially the questions of financing and partnerships–deserve closer inspection. Where do policy trends place government actors, multilateral development banks, the private sector, and civil society, in the “means of implementation” of sustainable development? Do current trends in financing present great opportunities for development led, shaped, and enjoyed by peoples and  their organisations?

Contents

Financing for Development: From public to private sources
MDBs, the World Bank Group, and the question of corporate capture
21st century development aggression
Ways forward: Asserting the right to development