July 24, 2020
Time for a New—or Old—Development Finance Model
We need to move forward—or backward—in what we expect development finance institutions (DFIs) to do in terms of financing private sector development in the world’s poorest countries.
Views from the Center
February 26, 2019
Still Lending (Mostly) After All These Years
Concern about relatively low development finance institution (DFI) mobilization ratios (dollars of private finance mobilized per dollar of DFI’s own commitments) is drawing attention to the product mix in DFI operations.
January 22, 2019
Trillions for the SDGs? Time for a Rethink
In 2015, the world enthusiastically signed on to the challenge of transforming billions to trillions of dollars of private finance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The idea was to use public and private development aid to unlock much more commercial private finance for sustainable growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.
November 19, 2018
“Billions to Trillions” is Not about Africa
It’s time for the MDBs to launch a realistic program for financing African infrastructure—a program that is appropriate for the realities of the region and the urgency of its infrastructure needs, writes Gyude Moore.
November 6, 2018
Can Blended Finance and Industrial Policy Work Together to Provide the Financing Developing Countries Need?
There are two discussions—on blended finance and industrial policy—that have been happening largely in parallel, but it’s becoming clear that they must intersect.
September 12, 2018
The Elusive Quest for Additionality
After toiling away for decades in relative obscurity, DFIs have found themselves thrust into the limelight and told to transform “billions to trillions,” to fill the yawning SDG financing gap.
August 1, 2018
Time to Pay More Attention to Tax Expenditures?
It is time that donors and technical assistance providers turn their attention to tax concessions provided by developing countries struggling to raise more taxes from domestic sources. The granting of tax concessions is not only mostly opaque and prone to corruption, but these concessions are further constricting the already narrow tax base of countries, thereby undermining the Addis Ababa Action Agenda to promote domestic resource mobilization. There is a risk that additional revenues collected through tax reforms may be lost through tax concessions.
January 22, 2018
Trillions in Private Finance for the SDGs? In Davos, Leaders Should Revisit the Role of Multilateral Development Banks
As global decision makers meet in Davos, one of the top agenda items should be how to mobilize more private finance to fund the Sustainable Development Goals—particularly how to strengthen the role of one of the most important tools of the international community: the multilateral development banks.
February 10, 2017
New Leadership at the IFC Aims to Get Us from Billions to Trillions
This week, CGD hosted a discussion with Philippe Le Houérou, the CEO of IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank. He was enthusiastic about his institution’s role in leveraging private capital and getting from billions to trillions of dollars for development, but he also presented a nuanced and critical judgment about the limitations of the IFC model to date, pointing to a number of ways it needs to change.
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