Monthly Highlights from ECDPM's Talking Points Blog, GREAT Insights, Volume 1, Issue 1 (January-February 2012)

How could taxation help to achieve the MDGs? – A reaction to OECD research Talking Points, Bruce Byiers, 27 January 2012
Financing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remains a major challenge. It is becoming clear that Official Development Assistance from donor countries will not be sufficient to fill the existing finance gap. A new OECD Working Paper zooms into domestic resource mobilisation – savings generated from domestic resources – as potential source of finance, and gives an updated estimate of the cost of meeting the MDGs. This article takes a closer looks at some details of the report. OECD’s research plays a valuable role in re-focusing minds towards the costs involved in meeting six of the MDGs...

Africa is in desperate need for greater unity and stronger leadership to realise its pan-African ambitions Talking Points, San Bilal, 3 February 2012
As noted by the Economist last December, and confirmed by a recent report by Invest AD and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Africa is on the rise to become one of the most attractive regions for investment and a pole for growth. The challenge is to transform these opportunities into concrete deliverables for equitable, inclusive and sustainable development throughout the continent. Committed political drive and vision will be key in this process.

Measuring the development impact of loans used for public investment projects Talking Points, Bruce Byiers. 16 December 2011
This was the theme of a roundtable discussion held by the EIB earlier this month. With the ever-increasing interest in leveraging aid with loans, the issue of how to measure impact seems a pertinent question to ask. The discussion centered on how the EIB intends to measure and monitor the impact of their investment projects, as required under the renewed mandate for external EU financing given by the European Parliament and Council. But as the discussion progressed and they presented the broad categories of indicators they plan to use, one began to wonder what they have been using up to... 

This Monthly Highlights was published in GREAT Insights Volume 1, Issue 1