The climate, conflict and COVID-19 crises have deepened the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) financing gap, shrunk public fiscal space, increased public debt, and exacerbated a rise in inequality and poverty on the African continent and most economies across the world. Reimaging Africa's development financing landscape by going beyond traditional models and strengthening governance systems will be crucial to building a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future.
Integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs) are a powerful approach to helping countries formulate risk-informed and SDG-aligned integrated financing strategies for a sustainable recovery. UN Member States introduced the concept of an INFF in the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda to align financing policies with long-term development plans and the SDGs and to create an enabling environment for better contribution from public and private actors. Today, more than 40 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are using the INFF approach.
One of the strategic building blocks of an INFF is monitoring and review, with a particular focus on promoting transparency throughout the budget cycle. There is a growing demand in the region for sharing experiences, practical advice and tools for developing SDG-aligned financing strategies and implementing INFF reforms related to SDG-aligned budgeting, taxation, public debt, investment, development cooperation, climate finance, private sector development, diaspora engagement and local finance, among others.
About the workshop
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and International Budget Partnership have joined forces to organise a 4-day workshop in Abuja, Nigeria.
The workshop, hosted within the framework of the INFF Facility and the regional budget transparency initiative, builds on the success of a regional INFF training workshop held virtually in August 2021 and a regional budget transparency workshop held in February 2020 in Nairobi.
The workshop will bring together the African INFF community and senior decision makers to share INFF experiences and learn about the advantages and challenges in setting up SDG-aligned integrated financing strategies, with a particular focus on SDG financing dialogues and open budget reforms.
On day 3 of the workshop, Open Budget Survey civil society researchers will join government officials. Together, they will take stock of countries' investments in human capital and budget openness. They will also develop draft country-level action plans to improve budget openness and increase support for social sectors and efforts to combat climate change. Government officials should integrate these action plans into INFF-driven financing strategies.