On the 4th of May, Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, officially launched the European Report on Development 2015 in Brussels. This 2015 edition of the report “Combining Finance and Policies to implement a transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda” was led by Dirk Willem te Welde at ODI and involved other European research institutes; CPAN  (Andrew Shepherd and Chiara Mariotti) contributed to Chapter 6 “The link between finance and policies for selected enablers”. 

The ERD 2015 report was received with great interest at the European Commission and beyond (#ERD2015) as it approaches the topic with a brand new perspective. Its main message is that finance alone will not be sufficient to promote and achieve the post-2015 development agenda, policies also matter and are fundamental. 

 “It is not an overall shortage of funds that will be the constraining factor in achieving a transformative post-2015 development agenda. Rather, it is the way finance is mobilised and used that will determine success in achieving the goals that the agenda enshrines” – ERD 2015 Report

Beside the ERD 2015 report, Andrew Shepherd also contributed to the ODI 2015 report “Financing the future: How international public finance should fund a global social compact to eradicate poverty” launched in April 2015. This report sets out the case for a strengthened commitment for International Public Finance to support a new social compact, focused on the poorest countries, and including minimum income provisions, universal health care and universal access to good quality education. 

CPAN’s own analysis of the finance required to achieve poverty eradication through health, education and social protection was in the 2014-5 Chronic Poverty Report: the road to zero extreme poverty. The main message here was that, especially for the 44 countries spending less than $500 per person total public expenditure, it is imperative to move away from fragmented, short-term funding to more secure resource provision based on predictable and longer-term global partnerships. As Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains the largest resource flow for countries with the lowest levels of domestic resource, it has a critical and increasingly important role to play in sustaining governments willing to get close to zero extreme poverty.