Virtual | Financing Low-Income Countries Towards Realistic Aspirations and Concrete Actions in a Post-COVID World

? 5 – 8 October 2020 ? 8:30 AM (EDT)
Virtual conference

Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the narrative on financing progress towards these goals in low-income countries (LICs) and select lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) has been dominated by a focus on the desirable rather than the feasible.

The need for more realism in assessing financing prospects has been underscored dramatically by the ongoing economic and social crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. As all countries, including low-income countries, take steps to address the crisis and the resulting dislocations, it is imperative that they do so in ways that do not compromise their medium-term economic and social progress, as embodied in the SDGs.

This online conference will bring together three key strands of the discussion around the financing needs of LICs for the SDGs – debt sustainability, domestic resource mobilization, and private capital flows. The lens through which each of these issues will be examined is one of a global economy that has suffered its largest shock since the Great Depression. By examining the key challenges and opportunities in each of these areas, the conference aims to set the stage for a discussion of how low-income countries might still be able to mobilize financing in sufficient volumes as well as on reasonable terms in the coming five years to remain on track towards achieving the SDGs.

Original source: CGD