The International Conference on Financing for Development was held from 18-22 March 2002 in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico.The Post Conference Daily Calendar provides links to all information from the plenaries, roundtables, side events and press conferences. The General Assembly will convene on Thursday, 27 June 2002 to discuss the report of the conference (A/Conf.198/11). This first United Nations-hosted conference to address key financial and development issues attracted 50 Heads of State or Government, over 200 ministers as well as leaders from the private sector and civil society, and senior officials of all the major intergovernmental financial, trade, economic, and monetary organizations. Their statements to the plenaries (in text and in video) and the Monterrey Consensus provide a picture of the new global approach to financing development. The Monterrey Conference also marked the first quadripartite exchange of views between governments, civil society, the business community, and the institutional stakeholders on global economic issues. These global discussions involved over 800 participants in twelve separate roundtables. The Co-Chairs of the roundtables -- heads of governments, the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the regional development banks, as well as ministers of finance, trade, and foreign affairs -- prepared summaries of the major ideas raised in the discussions.

This publication reviews the major financing issues influencing economic development since the historic Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002. It contains four main chapters under the headings of: international private capital flows; official development financing; external debt; and systemic issues.

Developing countries need additional, cross-border capital channeled into their private sectors to generate employment and growth, reduce poverty, and meet the other Millennium Development Goals. Innovative financing mechanisms are necessary to make this happen. 'Innovative Financing for Development' is the first book on this subject that uses a market-based approach. It compiles pioneering methods of raising development finance including securitization of future flow receivables, diaspora bonds, and GDP-indexed bonds. It also highlights the role of shadow sovereign ratings in facilitating access to international capital markets. It argues that poor countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, can potentially raise tens of billions of dollars annually through these instruments. The chapters in the book focus on the structures of the various innovative financing mechanisms, their track records and potential for tapping international capital markets, the constraints limiting their use, and policy measures that governments and international institutions can implement to alleviate these constraints.