Grants and concessional loans have been the most salient form of official development finance since the formation of the OECD-DAC in 1960, together with debt relief and the costs of technical assistance. However, the emergence of new actors, challenges and opportunities from the early 2000s are rapidly reshaping the debate about financing within the development cooperation arena. This transformation is challenging the role of traditional ODA, as new forms of development finance instruments are adopted, while the OECD-DAC is moving toward redefining ODA. The 2015 International Conference on Finance for Development in Addis Ababa, in particular, opened up the possibility of a formal re-codification of ‘development finance’ as Total Official Support for Sustainable Development’ (TOSSD). Within this particular context of changing debates of development cooperation, the panel will critically assess the emergence, framing and implementation of (supposedly) ‘new’ development finance instruments, including risk mitigation and other forms of leveraging private sector involvement and investment that are heralded by both state and non-state, traditional and non-traditional actors. Examples include Lines of Credit, Development Impact Bonds, ‘Ebola bonds’, public-private partnerships, export credits and so on. What are the implications and impacts of these emerging forms of ‘development finance’ for different development stakeholders, and most importantly, for poor peoples and poor countries?
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