In a few weeks’ time, representatives of the world’s governments will gather in Seville, for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. The conference aims to “build a renewed global financing system that will unlock greater volumes of capital at a lower cost”. The Compromiso de Sevilla will reaffirm a global commitment “to align international support with national strategies.”
There has long been a consensus that development cooperation should be driven by countries’ needs. The first principle of effective development cooperation, agreed by 161 countries and 56 organisations, is country ownership. The primary expression of what a country wants is its national development strategy. We commissioned this report to provide an overview of these national strategies in the countries where BII invests, in Africa and South Asia.
This exercise has revealed a high degree of alignment between the investments in our portfolio, and national priorities. That is not surprising. African and South Asian countries invariably want to grow and diversify their economies, to reduce poverty and advance human development, and we share the same understanding of what investments that will require.
Like most DFIs, large shares of our investments are in infrastructure and in the financial sector. We usually could not undertake a large infrastructure investment unless the government supports the project, so alignment with national priorities tends to be intrinsic there. Almost every country also sees improving the supply of finance to small and medium business as a priority, which we support by providing capital to banks and other intermediaries for on-lending to firms.
Investing to support national development priorities does not require explicit collaboration with local governments (although that can sometimes be helpful). The private sector is decentralised, not centrally planned. Our investments respond to the financing needs of businesses, which are meeting local needs. Our strategic impact priorities – productive, sustainable and inclusive – were informed by globally agreed development objectives, the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement.
Our investment strategies will be informed by these national development strategies, and our local coverage teams and relationships with FCDO country offices help us further understand and respond to local priorities.
