Financing development: from Monterrey to Doha, Open Democracy, November 2008, with Alison Evans

The global summit in Doha on paying for aid and development takes place amid a worldwide economic recession. All the more reason for visionary thinking and bold action, say Alison Evans & Simon Maxwell.

For the world's poorest nations, the United Nations conference on financing for development (FFD) in Doha on 29 November - 2 December 2008 is the most important economic summit in half a decade.

Even before the financial crisis erupted, this meeting was likely to be marked by recrimination. Developing nations feel that they have been hit first and hardest by oil shocks and food-price surges, and failed by G8Group of Eight promises on aid that have not materialised. The aid shortfall already amounts to some $30 billion a year, or 30% of pledges made at the Gleneagles summit in 2005. The stakes are now much higher, as the financial crisis bites. Research from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests that total financial flows to developing countries are likely to shrink by ten times as much as the extra promised by the G8Group of Eight in Gleneagles: $300 billion - or 25% of current flows................. (see link in title for full article)