24 August 2015: The latest essay in ‘The Road to Addis and Beyond’ series of think pieces from the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) discusses international public finance (IPF) in the post-2015 period, calling for a new narrative in which IPF does not conform to the traditional “donor-recipient” paradigm, and stressing the need to ensure that new criteria for IPF spending does not compromise resources for the poorest countries and people.

Author Gail Hurley, UN Development Programme (UNDP), observes that during the drafting process for the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), discussions referred heavily to the need for developed countries to meet long-standing international aid commitments and for making aid more effective. As a result, the AAAA reinforces a narrow understanding of the IPF in which a donor supplies the finance on a ‘charitable’ basis, and a recipient receives the (exclusive) benefits.

The essay also identifies issues beyond the financing of traditional development cooperation: environmental responses – requiring increased investments in climate change mitigation, in protected areas, and in sustainable infrastructure development; the needed economic transformations – requiring research, science, new technologies and innovation; or the increasingly frequent environmental and economic shocks – requiring adequate resources to support countries to deal with their consequences. Given that these interventions will be longer-term, riskier in nature and/or have low or no economic return, they will be less attractive to private investors and IPF will be essential, Hurley cautions. She calls for a new narrative on IPF, noting that, as many interventions will benefit multiple countries, such as climate change mitigation or communicable disease control, the traditional ‘donor–recipient’ paradigm becomes less valid.

Recalling that per capita income will stop being the most important consideration in IPF spending, replaced by criteria on the biggest impact for lowest cost, which may not be in the poorest and most vulnerable countries, the author also calls to ensure that scaled-up finance for these areas does not come at the expense of resources for the poorest countries and people.

UNRISD launched the ‘The Road to Addis and Beyond’ series to coincide with the third and final drafting session of the AAAA. [Think Piece: A Missed Opportunity to Discuss the Role of International Public Finance Post-2015] [‘The Road to Addis and Beyond’ Project]