Development finance: reforms, trends and implications for health
The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Sydney jointly hosted the public lecture DEVELOPMENT FINANCE: REFORMS, TRENDS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH.
This lecture was delivered by Brenda Killen, Deputy Director, Development Cooperation Directorate – OECD.
Financing the SDGs requires a major increase in development finance from domestic, private and international sources. Responding to the call of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, to turn billions of aid into trillions of development finance, the members of the OECD Development Assistance Committe have recently transformed the way in which they deliver aid. These shifts aim to enable greater innovation and leverage through blended finance and other forms of public-private financial instruments.
But will this move from billions to trillions benefit the poorest? Will health receive the amount and type of support it needs to be set on a sustainable path to universal health coverage? What do health activists need to know to influence the implementation of the new rules? And, how can we be assured that these reforms really will "leave no-one behind"?
As Deputy Director of the Development Coorperation Directorate, Brenda shared her insights on recent reforms and trends in development finance and development policy, and the implications for global health. She presented the latest thinking on good practice in the delivery of development assistance, provided an update on relevant international agreements, and an overview of the changing development landscape – including the emergence of new donors, and new actors such as the private sector. Brenda also shared her insights on the implications for the health sector as a result of the increased prioritisation of health and universal health coverage in shaping thinking and policy. This included consideration of how to ensure development finance for health reaches the poorest, what needs to be done to make aid investments sustainable, the role of movements like UHC 2030, defeat-NCDs and how to hold all development partners – including new actors – to account.
Brenda’s presentation was followed by a respondent – Mr Clary Castrission OAM, Lecturer at The Centre for Social Impact at UNSW Sydney and CEO of the 40K Group – and questions by the audience.
About Brenda Killen:
As Deputy Director of the OECD’s Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD), Brenda Killen leads work to improve policy-making, delivery, monitoring and accountability for a total global annual aid budget of more than $140bn. Ms. Killen joined the OECD in 2007 and has over 25 years’ experience leading the design and delivery of international development programmes. A member of OECD’s Senior Leadership Team, Brenda works with partners around the world to understand development better, strengthen development finance, improve policy coherence and build partnerships for the SDGs. As OECD’s envoy to the post-2015 processes and G20 Development Working Group, she helped translate Agenda 2030 into OECD’s action plan on the SDGs. She was a lead architect of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, and has delivered several high level agreements on aid effectiveness.
Previously, as Deputy Director of Health Policy, Development and Services at the World Health Organization (WHO), Brenda was responsible for defining WHO’s development policy and role in accelerating progress towards the health Millennium Development Goals. She worked with Health and Finance Ministers, donors, CSOs and the private sector to better understand and improve cooperation in global health; and led strategic planning for health systems in WHO's medium term strategic plan 2008-13. Brenda has also worked for the UK Department for International Development (DfID) in several senior roles, and was lead author of DfID’s policy on middle income countries. An experienced economist, Ms. Killen has extensive field experience in Africa.
Ms Killen is a member of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman Every Child, and is a fellow of Women in Global Health. Ms. Killen has a MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
About Clary Castrission:
Clary Castrission OAM is a member of the Education team of the Centre for Social Impact at UNSW. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the 40K Group. After graduating as a lawyer in Sydney Australia, Clary was accidentally turned into a social entrepreneur when he took a lifechanging trip to India, where he was deeply affected by the living conditions of the people who work in the quarries of Bangalore and the lack of opportunity for their children’s futures. In response, Clary co-founded 40K with the mission to build a school for severely underprivileged kids outside Bangalore. The school opened in 2010 and is still running. Clary next set about transforming 40K from a school-building charity to an edtech social enterprise. 40K now has operations in India and Cambodia, and is planning for future scale.
Clary has also consulted with corporates such as Dexus and Lendlease, assisting them with the process of establishing CSV business lines to complement more traditional CSR initiatives. This work has seen him assist teams in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. Clary has spoken at TEDx and the United Nations in 2013 about his ideas on ‘Innovation by Restriction’, and in 2014 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his work associated with 40K. In 2017, Australian tech giant Atlassian invested $1million into 40K, and 40K won further support from DFAT’s Innovation xChange, and won MIT’s global SOLVE competition. Clary also won Australian Social Enterprise Awards in 2014 and 2016.
