July 2014: In a blog post, Mahmoud Mohieldin, World Bank, discusses how to achieve successful financing for the post-2015 development agenda. Mohieldin, who serves as Special Envoy to World Bank President Jim Kim, describes the need to scale up development finance, including through resources from large institutional investors, and highlights the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in financing and implementing the post-2015 agenda.

Noting that “hopes for the post-2015 goals must be matched with the required financing,” Mohieldin recommends tapping diverse financing sources at national and global levels and capturing “every opportunity for partnerships that will spur development.” He cites examples of innovative financing, such as the GAVI Alliance and the International Finance Facility for Immunization, while acknowledging that development assistance will remain an important source of finance, especially for the poorest countries.

Developing countries need to take the lead in mobilizing domestic resources, according to Mohieldin. He recommends increasing taxation capacity and the efficiency of public spending. He suggests development partners can support capacity building to help achieve these aims.

On private sector financing, Mohieldin highlights the role of the private sectors in creating jobs, fostering financial inclusion and equity, and promoting responsible corporate citizenship. He recommends that countries mobilize external private financing, particularly for infrastructure investments, underscoring the importance of appropriate regulations and financial risk-sharing arrangements to develop high-quality infrastructure projects.

Mohieldin concludes by stressing the role of financing in implementation. He recommends, inter alia: multi-stakeholder implementation partnerships to increase mutual accountability on post-2015 goals; and financing and policy options that go beyond business as usual. He suggests countries should define their national development priorities and strategies and then engage development partners, the private sector and civil society in multi-stakeholder partnerships. Finally, he draws attention to World Bank reforms that he says will strengthen the Bank’s ability to support efforts to implement the post-2015 agenda, and looks forward to the report of the UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) and the 2015 Summit on Financing for Development (FfD).

Development Progress published the blog post as part of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Financing Progress series. [Blog] [Financing Progress Series]