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Beyond aid - Filling the gaps, or plugging the leaks?

 Registration is closed for this event
A one day workshop to explore how Canadian NGOs can support southern countries to raise their own resources for development.

The landscape of global development finance is changing. Donor countries, including Canada, are reducing their Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments. And the need for developing countries to mobilize their own domestic resources has become a common refrain in development circles. Many donors underscore the importance of developing countries becoming more self-reliant, often pointing to the most important source of domestic resources - tax. Developing countries, however, face major challenges in retaining their own tax revenues. Southern countries lose almost $1 trillion a year in illicit financial outflows; more than half of these outflows are due to commercial tax dodging, largely by multinational corporations.  The recent Development Initiatives report on “Investments to End Poverty” noted that “of the US$472 billion in foreign direct Investment into developing countries, US$420 billion flowed out as repatriated profits.” If developing countries are to retain these resources, global tax rules need to be reformed and transparency in international finance needs to be improved.

This seminar will bring together Canadian and international resource persons to discuss the changing landscape of global development finance – two years out from when the Millennium Development Goals expire. What are the major trends in international aid relative to other sources of development finance? What is the role of NGOs, and ODA, in supporting developing countries to mobilize their own resources? What is our role as development advocates in promoting alternative sources of finance, and in addressing domestic resource mobilization and the problem of illicit financial outflows?

This seminar has several key goals:

  • To set the context with respect to current global trends in aid spending, in particular as it relates to innovative sources of finance, domestic resource mobilization and capital flight;
  • Provide an overview of how companies dodge taxes and the measures needed to address this;
  • Provide several case studies from Africa to illustrate how multinationals shift profits out of the continent and the impacts this is having on development;
  • Provide an overview of progress to-date in curtailing illicit financial outflows and what Canada and Canadians can do to support these efforts.

International Resource Persons:

Savior Mwambwa is with the Tax Justice Network – Africa and the former director of the Center for Trade Policy and Development in Zambia. His work in Zambia is highlighted in the film “Good Copper, Bad Copper.”

Victoria Harnett is the Campaigns and Communications Advisor, Aid and Development Finance with OXFAM International. She is responsible for leading the design of Oxfam’s 2014 global campaign on Tax Justice.

Jenny Ricks is the Head of Campaigns with ActionAid UK. She is responsible for leading ActionAid’s work around Tax Justice.

This event will NOT have interpretation.

When
December 11th, 2013 from  9:00 AM to  5:00 PM
Location
International Development Research Centre
David Hopper A Room, 8th Floor,
150 Kent Street
Ottawa, ON
Canada
Frais d'événement
Registration CA$25.00