European Development Days

The Ferdi will participate at the European Development Days. The foundation is organizing two sessions :

- one will present the Ferdi new book on Sustainable Development Financing

- the other will present an Observatory on the Sustainable Competitiveness in Africa

The Ferdi new book Financing sustainable development by addressing vunerabilities

S5 / June, 3, 18h00-19h15

Moderator  : Patrick Guillaumont, President at Ferdi

Speakers :
- Mamadou Lamine Loum : Ex-Prime Minister of Senegal
- Giorgia Giovannetti, Director of the research strand “ Development ” and Professor of Economics at the University of Florence,
- Inge Kaul, adjunct professor at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
- Jean-Michel Severino, CEO of "Investisseurs et Partenaires" (I&P).

The new international development agenda, clearly including global public goods, is setting a course for an universal sustainable development. The achievement of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require to mobilize a huge amount of public and private resources and to implement policies supporting an appropriate use of these resources.

This book examines how development finance can help to ensure the sustainability of development, taking into account the various types of vulnerability faced by developing countries.

Studying the link between vulnerability and development finance leads the book's authors to tackle many complex and controversial issues, such as: What are the roles and responsibilities of emerging countries, multilateral banks and traditional donors in development finance? How should public development aid be calculated, allocated and spent? What is the tax potential of developing countries and how could it be improved? What taxation system could be used to ensure that mining operations contribute to the development of the poorest countries? How could private savings be mobilised effectively? How can we promote 'Impact Investment'? What type of financial development is pro-poor? How can we fund a basic level of health in all countries? What are the long-term prospects for migrants' remittances? What is the potential for so-called innovative instruments, such as guarantees, risk-sharing mechanisms and international redistribution tools? How to implement funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation? How to appropriately spend money in fragile states?

These questions are addressed by over forty authors, selected from amongst the best and most respected international experts from the North and South, each of whom contributes on a specific topic in an original and independent way.

Structured around the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and political, and environmental), this collection of valuable and complementary contributions considers how new development finance can help to tackle the vulnerabilities which compromise sustainability.

The book highlights the role of new types of finance as well as the lasting relevance of public development aid for the poorest and most vulnerable countries. It emphasizes the need for different  funding mechanisms depending on the characteristics of the recipient countries and on the nature of the challenges they face.

gallery on the website of the European development days

Website of the European Development Days  : http://eudevdays.eu/topics/ferdi-book-sustainable-development-financing

An Observatory on the Sustainable Competitiveness in Africa 

S5 /  June, 4, 2015, 12:30-13:45

Moderator : Christophe Angely, Head of Strategy at Ferdi

Speaker : Ginette-Ursulle Yoman, Managing partner at Victorys Conseil, former State Secretary for Governance and capacity building, Ivory Coast

Competitiveness is of major importance at a time of globalisation. For growth to remain strong in African countries, their development needs to be supported by a constant focus on improving competitiveness in relation to emerging economies, in a way that goes far beyond simply exploiting natural resources. Although Africa is becoming an attractive continent, many countries there still suffer from unfavourable conditions of various kinds, such as quality and price of infrastructure, energy prices, robustness of their institutions or countries’ vulnerability to unpredictable events. Although this assessment has been clear for some time, measuring it remains far from perfect. It has prompted Ferdi to create a Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory, which is intended to provide as accurate an understanding as possible of a country’s strengths and weaknesses. It offers a dynamic assessment based on a series of indicators selected for their relevance and with a firm scientific foundation.

On the website of the European Developemnt Days  : http://eudevdays.eu/topics/energy-prices-africa-0