Five years after the adoption of the 2030 and Addis Agendas, mobilization of sufficient finance remains a critical challenge in most countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has further undermined fiscal and external balances, threatening countries’ prospects for timely achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs), a planning and delivery framework to help countries finance sustainable development and the SDGs, can be a valuable tool in helping to formulate a comprehensive strategy for recovery – one that is aligned with the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, and that is sustainably financed. The Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development (IATF) set out key features and steps to operationalize the INFFs for the SDGs in the 2019 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR). INFFs are a tool for governments to (i) align financing policies with national sustainable development priorities, and (ii) strengthen the links between planning processes (such as National Sustainable Development Strategies or national development plans) and financing policies. INFFs can also help Governments bring together and better utilize the wide range of support measures on SDG financing provided by the international community. Ultimately, they can help them raise resources to implement national development plans and finance the SDGs. The project brings together existing capacity and policy support for SDG financing by implementing entities in an integrated offer to target countries. The project addresses capacity gaps identified by target countries in one or more of the four building blocks spelled out in the 2019 FSDR, namely,  to provide support in the assessment and diagnostics phase, e.g. on costing of priorities in national strategies, in the formulation of a financing strategy, in monitoring and review mechanisms, and/ or governance arrangements. The project puts a substantive focus on two elements of a financing strategy in particular, in line with country priorities, and with a view to building back better: mobilizing financing for productive investments in recovery and the SDGs (such as SME or infrastructure financing, sustainable financial sector development, and the role of national and regional development banks); and aligning public financing policies and mechanisms with the SDGs and climate action (such as SDG budgeting, taxation and environmental finance). It will also create spaces for peer learning, making use of existing platforms at the regional level. Success would be demonstrated by identification and implementation of financing policy initiatives and mechanisms to finance the SDGs in selected countries.

The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of NTAs and MoFs in developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Africa to negotiate and apply double tax treaties, drawing on the UN Model, and to formulate inputs into the policy making processes influencing the way double tax treaties are negotiated and re-negotiated to the benefit of developing countries. The main focus of the first phase of the project will be the delivery of the UN Course on Double Tax Treaties with a view to increasing awareness and understanding of the UN Model among MoF and NTA officials of broad number of developing countries in the two regions. During the second phase of the project, tax treaty negotiators will strengthen their negotiating skills and techniques enabling them to conclude treaties, which would be beneficial to both treaty partners, through participation in the UN-OECD Practical Workshop on Negotiation of Tax Treaties. Administrators of tax treaties in 4 pilot countries will be assisted, through national seminars and follow-up country missions, with a view to implementing the necessary policy changes in order to enable a more effective application of double-tax treaties and thereby to improve the investment climate in the country. The third phase of the project will focus on institutionalizing this capacity development programme in the regions with the view of passing the ownership of the relevant knowledge and tools, as well as the administration of the programme to regional experts and regional tax organizations.

The least developed countries (LDCs) represent the poorest and weakest segment of the international community, with limited human and institutional capacities, high levels of poverty, scarcity of financial resources, and often undiversified economies dominated by the agricultural or natural resource sectors. LDCs benefit from a range of international support measures (ISMs), and LDCs in the process of graduation often poorly understand the potential impacts of graduation in terms of reduction of access to ISMs. This project will support three target countries—Bhutan, Nepal and Uganda—to collect data and information on available ISMs and the degree to which they are used in different sectors, and to use this information in impact assessment and evidence-based policies. In addition, the project will support these countries to identify key productive sectors where ISMs and national policies could have the greatest impact to support smooth transition, and will work with national stakeholders to develop national reports and recommendations that target countries may adopt to develop elements of smooth transition strategies themselves. The project will work not only with government stakeholders but also, importantly, with chambers of commerce and/or sector associations in each country, given their important role in providing information and advice to the private sector, and obtaining information from the private sector regarding real-life issues, barriers and constraints. Finally, the project will work closely with UN and bilateral development partners in each country, to develop links with their future support to the target LDCs and promote sustainability.