Financing For Development Enhancing The Financial Safety Net For Developing Countries

Access to Fund financial resources provides a financial safety net to help countries manage adverse shocks, acting as a potential supplement to foreign reserves when there is a balance of payments need. Such support is especially important to developing countries with limited capacity to borrow in domestic or foreign markets. This paper proposes a set of measures that would expand access to Fund resources for developing countries, as one of the initiatives the Fund is undertaking as part of the wider effort of the international community to support countries in pursuing the post- 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

PRGT-eligible members make considerable use of Fund concessional financing. Since 2010, 56 percent of Fund arrangements have involved a PRGT-facility. This paper examines a number of issues raised by Executive Directors and the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) since the issuance to the Board of the June 2015 staff paper on enhancing the financial safety net for developing countries (IMF, 2015a). This paper concludes that there is a need to clarify guidance in some areas pertaining to PRGT policies. This will be done through an early revision of the LIC Handbook, which is already underway. The paper does not propose changes to the Fund’s concessional facilities at this juncture. A comprehensive review of PRGT (Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust) resources and facilities is planned for 2018.

This Handbook provides guidance to staff on the financial facilities and non-financial instruments for low-income countries (LICs), defined here as all countries eligible to obtain concessional financing from the Fund. It updates the previous version of the Handbook that was published in February 2016 (IMF, 2016d) by incorporating modifications resulting from Board papers and related decisions since that time, including Financing for Development—Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries—Further Considerations (IMF, 2016c), Review of Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust – Review of Interest Rate Structure (IMF, 2016b), Eligibility to Use the Fund’s Facilities for Concessional Financing (IMF, 2017a), Large Natural Disasters—Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries (IMF, 2017b) and Adequacy of the Global Financial Safety Net – Proposal for a New Policy Coordination Instrument (IMF, 2017c). Designed as a comprehensive reference tool for program work on LICs, the Handbook also refers, in summary form, to a range of relevant policies that apply more generally to IMF members. As with all guidance notes, the relevant IMF Executive Board decisions, including the terms of the various LIC Trust Instruments that have been adopted by the Board, remain the sole legal authority on the matters covered in the Handbook

2015 is set to be a pivotal year for the international development agenda, with agreements to be reached on the objectives and policies for promoting development that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable through 2030. The first stage in completing the debate on these issues is the Third UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD), to be held in Addis Ababa during July 13–16, 2015, which aims to build an international consensus on the actions needed to ensure that sufficient financing is available for developing countries in pursuing sustainable development.

This Handbook provides guidance to staff on the financial and non-financial facilities for low-income countries (LICs), defined here as all countries eligible to obtain concessional financing from the Fund. It updates the previous version of the Handbook that was published in February 2015 (IMF, 2015) by incorporating modifications resulting from Board papers and related decisions since that time, including the reform of the Fund policy on Poverty Reduction Strategy in Fund engagement with low-income countries, Financing for Development—Enhancing the Financial Safety net for Developing Countries, Proposal for Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, the Review of Eligibility to Use the Fund’s Facilities for Concessional Financing, and the 14th General Review of Quotas.1 Designed as a comprehensive reference tool for program work on LICs, the Handbook also refers, in summary form, to a range of relevant policies that apply more generally to IMF members. As with all guidance notes, the relevant IMF Executive Board decisions, including the terms of the various LIC Trust Instruments that have been adopted by the Board, remain the sole legal authority on the matters covered in the Handbook.

With the deadline for achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) less than a decade away, the uneven progress is raising important questions about the ability of the international community to 'scale up' its efforts to finance the goals. Securing adequate financing for development has thus become the most pressing issue of the development agenda. This groundbreaking volume, by leading development economists and practitioners, addresses the central concern for policymakers involved in long term planning for the MDGs: how to create 'fiscal space' for the MDGs and strengthen domestic resource mobilization for human development, while ensuring long-term sustainability and freedom from reliance on aid. By looking at the evidence with fresh perspectives, the authors present a novel approach by which fiscal policy can be made to work for the poor, for the long term. Published with UNDP and Revenue Watch.

Developing countries need additional, cross-border capital channeled into their private sectors to generate employment and growth, reduce poverty, and meet the other Millennium Development Goals. Innovative financing mechanisms are necessary to make this happen. 'Innovative Financing for Development' is the first book on this subject that uses a market-based approach. It compiles pioneering methods of raising development finance including securitization of future flow receivables, diaspora bonds, and GDP-indexed bonds. It also highlights the role of shadow sovereign ratings in facilitating access to international capital markets. It argues that poor countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, can potentially raise tens of billions of dollars annually through these instruments. The chapters in the book focus on the structures of the various innovative financing mechanisms, their track records and potential for tapping international capital markets, the constraints limiting their use, and policy measures that governments and international institutions can implement to alleviate these constraints.

This publication offers a comprehensive view of the Monterrey Conference, pulling together in one volume and CD-ROM all the relevant speeches, proposals, reports, resolutions and other documentation, including the Monterrey Consensus itself.

One of the most important and controversial challenges feeing the international financial and trading system is the need for developing countries to meet their high and rapidly growing external debt obligations and foreign exchange requirements. Developing countries have suffered major shocks in the form of global recession, high real interest rates, weakened terms of trade, and rising protectionism against their exports. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Western central banks, and private financial institutions are seeking to avoid a collapse of the international financial system, and developing countries are seeking to grow through increased trade and access to external financing. Yet the fragility of current international trade and monetary systems seriously threatens the achievement of both sets of objectives. Professor Loxley integrates the structural adjustment experience of Third World countries with the policies, practices, and relationships of external financial agents in his discussion of options for reforming policy and of the limitations inherent in implementing these reforms.

This paper reports an updated assessment of movements in official financing for developing countries during 1997-1999. The composition of official financing flows changed too; as a result of the Asian crisis Member states of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) increased official development financing from $73 billion in 1996 to $85 billion in 1999. At the same time, however, new commitments by export credit agencies--a resource not included in the DAC figures--declined during this period, reflecting a slowing down in large-scale projects as governments affected by the Asian financial crisis suspended or postponed a number of public sector projects. The debt relief and its orientation toward poverty reduction is an important contribution to international efforts to help raise the living standards of the poorest in the world. Its success, however, will crucially depend on the willingness of donor countries to increase resources for development aid and link them to the recipient countries' poverty reduction strategies.