Source:
IFIs Latin American Monitor
Tue Feb 05 2008
Halifax Initiative Coalition organized the conference "The Changing Face of Global Development Finance – Impacts and implications for aid, development, the South and the Bretton Woods Institutions" on February 1 and 2 in Ottawa, Canada. The objectives of the conference were to look at some of the emerging alternatives, as well as the opportunities and challenges they present with respect to the current international financial system and its institutions.
The face of Global Development Finance is changing. The international financial system has entered a remarkable period of transition in relation to a few years ago. Numerous countries have repaid their debts to the IMF ahead of schedule, leaving the Fund with a US$103 million shortfall in fiscal year 2007. Many of these same countries have indicated that they will not return to the IMF because of the burdensome conditions that it imposes on debtors.
In its place, new institutions and new sources of finance are emerging. Increasingly, Southern governments are seeking real alternatives to the World Bank and the IMF: a Bank of the South is emerging in Latin America, an $80 billion Monetary Fund has been created in Asia, and both China and India are providing Africa with condition-free financing that far surpasses current Bank allocations. But these new alternatives are not without their own challenges.
The objectives of Halifax's conference were to look at some of the emerging alternatives, as well as the opportunities and challenges they present with respect to the current international financial system and its institutions. For this purpose the panellists, who represent different regions and institutions, presented their points of view of these issues. The following are some of the participants and the topics raised:
Amar Bhattacharya, Group of 24, provided an overview of current debates around international development, the changing context of the financing for development and the strategies of international institutions towards a new financial architecture. In his presentation Bhattacharya introduced evidence showing that economic growth of developing countries continues posed numerous challenges for low-income countries, thus this growth means inequality within countries and regions, serious problems in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and problems of enviornmental sustainability.
Yao Graham, Third World Network-Africa, and Firoze Manji, Pambazuka News and Fahamu, looked at the impact of the global development finance debates in Africa and the role of China as a new donor.
In relation to China's involvement in Africa, Firoze Manji highlighed three main dimensions: foreign direct investment, aid and trade. In each of these dimensions China’s engagement is dwarfed by those of US and European countries, and often smaller than those of other Asian economies. He explained that "the evidence available suggests that the needs of China’s rapidly developing capitalism are similar to those of its Western counterparts. (...) The advantage that China has over western capital is that it has no history of enslavement, colonisation, financing or support for coups against unfriendly regimes, or the presence of military forces in support of its foreign policies. ‘Perhaps the material distinction is not between Chinese capital and Western, but rather between the merely rapacious, and the more sophisticated. Each of these are not two separate categories, but at least as much two different faces, each of which may be presented as convenient.’
The Latin American perspective was exposed by Jorge Marchini, International Debt Observatory, and Fabrina Furtado, Rede Brasil. Marchini presented the debate on the Bank of the South, the context in which the initiative has been developed and its current challenges. Fabrina Furtado, stressed the role of the Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) within South America, and explained the work of Civil Society Organizations to open up spaces for dialogue to achieve greater transparency, social and enviornmental responsability from the Bank. The panellists highlighted the particular relationship of Latin American countries with the IMF, then that the major economies (Argentina and Brazil) paid in advance its debts to this institution (December, 2005). The path undertaken over 2007 represents an alternative to traditional institutions, not exempt from internal contraditions within the region.
Roberto Bissio, Social Watch coordinator, and John Foster, North South Institute, presented the debate on Financing for Development, the implications of the Paris Declaration and the work and perspective of civil society organizations on the Monterrey agenda.
The discussion around aid effectiveness and its challenges was developed by Lydia Durán, Association for Women's Rights in Development, Charles Mutasa, AFRODAD, Rasheed Draman, Parliamentary Centre, and Alejandro Bendana, Centro de Estudios Internacionales, Nicaragua.
Halifax's conference was followed by an even larger affair – the International Forum on Civil society and Aid effectiveness was hosted by the Advisory Group and led by CCIC and the Canadian government and it brought together some 200 people from north and south, from governments and civil society.
* More information: http://www.ccic.ca/e/002/aid.shtml
Related Information:
* Conference website
* Presentations day one
* Presentarions day two
* Afrodad's report - The Changing Face Of Global Development Finance
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