Financial Transparency Coalition

Hillary Clinton made an extraordinary speech to the OECD on aid today. It went far beyond anything I might have expected. The whole thing is here. The important highlights are as follows, in my opinion:

There are many urgent issues we could discuss today, but I want to focus on two. First, partnering with developing countries on reforms in three interconnected areas – taxes, transparency, and corruption – because focusing on these three will give us the tools needed to enable more countries to fund more of their own development. And second, doing more to support women as...

The EU must prove itself as a promoter of development, by ensuring that more funds flow from the North to the South rather than vice versa. The case of tax-dodging Zambian copper mining company Mopani, shows that money from the ‘EU bank’ – The European Investment Bank (EIB) – continues to find its way into tax havens. The EU likes to purvey itself as a benefactor for the developing world. It is the largest ODA donor and proponent of many policy documents underwriting its engagement to promote sustainable development in developing countries. However, partly due to a...

It seems right to juxtapose two articles in the FT over the last couple of days. First this:

Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, already under fire over a multibillion-dollar telecoms corruption scandal, suddenly has a more down-to-earth problem on his plate – the skyrocketing price of onions. Their price at India’s retail vegetable markets has doubled from Rs35 ($0.78) per kg to Rs80 in the past few days, angering consumers already feeling the pinch from a year of food price inflation and rising fuel prices.

And secondly this:

Aid doesn’t work. It’s a statement I hear a lot. Development aid often gets siphoned off by corruption. Aid in the form of money is inefficient, often getting lost in red tape and bureaucratic mess, while those in need see nearly none of it. Aid in the form of goods encourages dependency. Almost in response, private sector capitalists have responded with microfinance. Indeed, the microfinance has seemed like an answer to this conundrum. It the free-market’s response to one of the most difficult questions in development economics: how can we help without undermining the very goal we...