development finance

As Vietnam graduates from IDA, the World Bank’s concessional finance window, there will be a major change in the types of development finance the country can access. Oxfam is concerned about what this changing financial landscape might mean for Vietnam’s fight against poverty, inequality, and gender inequality.

The failure of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee’s to agree tough new rules governing aid invested in the private sector – so-called private sector instruments – was criticised by Oxfam and the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) today.

Oxfam welcomes the EU increasing its aid for education, public health and gender equality in developing countries in its budget for 2019. However, it still falls short of allocating 20 percent of the aid budget to these vital areas.

Following a vote in the European Parliament on the EU budget for 2019, Oxfam is concerned that the EU continues to prioritize migration management at the expense of humanitarian action and sustainable development.

Development finance institutions have not extended openness and transparency to high-risk projects financed through their financial intermediary clients. Oxfam has outlined a suggested framework, Open Books for High-Risk Financing, which proposes a set of principles to systematize and enhance disclosure in financial intermediary lending.

‘Blending’ combines official development assistance with other private or public resources, in order to ‘leverage’ additional funds from other actors. This report aims to clarify what it is, how it works and how it is used, to foster greater understanding of this increasingly prominent development finance mechanism.

“This is great and sorely needed news at a time when the world faces a sobering set of challenges," said Nick Galasso, interim head of Oxfam International's Washington office.