FDIs should drive global partnerships – experts

A strong private sector in post 2015 global partnerships will be instrumental in raising resources to fund budgets in developing countries as opposed to aid from rich nations.The post 2015 global partnership emphasises domestic resources mobilisation by developing countries to avoid aid reliance that are susceptible to shocks.“The private sector Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), not aid flows, should be key for the post 2015 partnerships,” Dr Stephan Klingebiel, the Head of Department German Development Institute, said during the presentation of preliminary findings of the European Development Report 2012. A consortium of European research institutions led by the International Development Centre- UK commissioned, and Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) wrote a case study for the European Development Report 2012The report focuses on the future of development assistance in post 2015 and examines Rwanda as its case study.“For post 2015 agenda I think there is strong interest to go beyond aid, that’s about domestic resources, even in poor countries,’ Klingebiel saidThe case study examines issues relating to how the Government of Rwanda funds its development priorities including taxation and other domestic revenues, development assistance and remittances and also discusses trade and investment. “What we want to do based on research is to develop some ideas on what might be most important when it comes to this global partnership,” he addedExperts assert that strengthening investments is crucial to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which was to a large extent driven by aid.“We want to draw conclusions for the global partnership that will come after 2015,” he saidKlingebiel however says; “But this is not meant to replace aid where aid is still needed but to make sure that this kind of economic collaboration and cooperation is going to be strengthened”. “This kind of perception is changing in favour of Africa.Ronald Nkusi, Director of External Finance Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, says that the report a strong case for post 2015 global partnership which is expected to have new framework differing from the MDGs document. “The new partnership is looking at how developed and developing world actually collaborate effectively to farther the development of the developing countries,” he saidNkusi notes that the current partnership is donor –recipient which does not give developing partners a chance to decide on their development agenda and how to allocate the aid, adding that instead the partnership should be premised on mutual respect and understanding .We are optimistic that going forward developing countries will be able try to martial their own resources to support their budgetsFor example, Rwanda has for the past years been struggling to bring down the donor funded budget proportion to (43 per cent this year) through promotion of private sector and other domestic resource mobilisation.

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FDIs should drive global partnerships – experts