September 2014: In the latest issue of DACnews, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD-DAC) focuses on questions related to financing the post-2015 development agenda. It addresses: recommendations of an independent Expert Reference Group (ERG) on development finance; the role of soft loans in the post-2015 agenda; the evolution of post-2015 finance; and the role of donors in supporting private-sector investment in development.

ERG members have endorsed 22 recommendations and conclusions on how to finance the post-2015 development framework. They recommend, inter alia: maintaining the commitment to provide 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) as official development assistance (ODA); improved data as a precondition for transparent, representative measures of development finance; and agreeing on a common definition of concessional loans as ODA.

The ERG further recommended a new measurement system that, inter alia: looks beyond ODA and includes a more representative and comprehensive definition of financing for development; reflects the increased diversity of providers and development finance instruments; and is designed through consultations with representatives of recipient countries including middle-income countries (MICs), non-DAC providers and civil society.

The ERG observed that “measuring and incentivizing additional financial flows is necessary but not sufficient to achieve development results that ultimately translate into recipient benefits.” It recommended complementing a measurement system on amounts and types of development finance with results measurement. DAC members will debate these recommendations at a Senior Level Meeting in October 2014.

DACnews also reports on a DAC Development Debate that took place on 19 September. The debate discussed five ways in which the post-2015 international public finance narrative may evolve: from temporary to permanent; from quantity to quality; from graduation to gradation; from voluntary to contributory; and from foreign to global. Participants recognized the post-2015 framework as an opportunity to develop a new narrative and structure.

September’s DACnews also highlights: the forthcoming ‘Development Co-operation Report 2014: Mobilizing resources for sustainable development,’ which will be published on 7 October, and which explores existing and potential sources of financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and two side events during the 69th UN General Assembly (UNGA) General Debate on the role of the private sector in delivering the SDGs and shaping development cooperation for implementing the post-2015 framework [DACnews September 2014] [Publication: Expert Reference Group on Development Finance: Final Conclusions and Recommendations] [IISD RS Story on UNGA Side Events]