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Matthew Martin established the Development Finance International Group as the External Finance for Africa Group, in 1993. It is a non-profit economic policy advisory, research, training, and capacity-building group. We have worked with more than 40 developing country governments in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, to improve their capacity to design, analyse and implement key strategies on debt, on the external and domestic financing of development, on core macroeconomic policies and on poverty reduction.
What is our Corporate Status?
The two member companies, DRI and DFI operate on a not for profit basis, with all funds returning to donors if they are not spent. However, since we are funded by several foreign governments including the UK, we cannot under UK law be a charity. As a result, Debt Relief International Limited and Development Finance International Limited have been established as what is known under UK law as companies 'limited by guarantee'. This is the UK equivalent of a not-for-profit corporation under US law, and they are accepted as non-profit organisations by UK authorities.
Limiting by guarantee also means that all of our funds and assets are the property of our donors unless they are spent on the purposes for which DRI and DFI have been established - to build capacity in developing countries. So we cannot transfer the execution of the CBP or the Private Foreign Capital programme to any other organisation or sell the companies to anyone else.
Key Projects and Programmes:
DFI launched its latest Programme in February 2001, building on capacity building and research projects conducted with 16 countries since 1995, which have been supported by Sida, Danida, DFID and Seco.
Following a positive review of the first (pilot) phase of the programme in 2002, DFI has commenced Phase 2. This is a 3-year, US$4.5 million programme funded by the Governments of UK, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. This finances the conduct of statistical surveys and other methods to build country capacity to monitor and analyse external private capital stocks and flows, for the BoP and IIP and investor perception. It aims to make a major contribution to monitoring the stability of international financial flows, allowing countries to fulfil latest international codes and standards.
The Programme acts only on demand from the developing countries. It is currently assisting Bolivia, The Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia. Many more countries have approached DFI and its regional partners to request future work, with the possibility of Burkina Faso, Kenya, Lesotho and Swaziland entering the programme in the near future. To ensure financial sustainability and maximise ownership by developing country governments, 80% of our resource people are from Africa and the Caribbean, assisting others via South-South cooperation. In addition, we work in conjunction with regional cooperating partners to whom we are transferring our functions. These include the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI), the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) and the Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA).
Methodology is adapted to meet country needs, taking into account existing exchange controls and planned reforms, different institutional structures, and the recommendations of any previous technical assistance. It always meets international codes and standards and best international and regional practices, but usually goes way beyond this, allowing countries to survey Investor opinions and practices as a basis for policy changes to maximise the contribution of private capital flows to poverty reduction. Our main tools for monitoring are non-survey reporting mechanisms, survey forms and related software, which capture activities of enterprises with foreign assets and liabilities, banks, foreign exchange bureaux, portfolio investors, and other sectors as relevant, as well as perceptions of both resident and non-resident investors. These have been approved by the IMF. The software, designed by DFI, Eveleigh Information Solutions Ltd in the UK and country experts, complements existing external debt software, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat's CS-DRMS, and UNCTAD's DMFAS.
We focus particularly on training and assisting countries with implementation, typically over a 1-year cycle:
The aim over 3 years is to reduce external technical and financial support gradually, to ensure ownership by the countries and regional partners reflected in the incorporation of tasks into their institutional workplans and staff job descriptions.
The Programme also goes beyond the national level, helping countries to learn from one another on how to refine methodology, policy and investment promotion efforts. To achieve these aims, it organised an international workshop for developing countries, regional organisations and international experts in March 2002, promotes direct country – to –country contact, and brings expertise from the region to training events and follow-up and other missions.
For more details please see:
Monitoring Private Capital Flows to Developing Countries Programme Document, which describes the aims, objectives and methods. 
International Conference Report to Stakeholders, which presents methodological and analytical summary findings from the first phase of the programme.
FPC CBP Calendar of Events
FPC CBP Useful Links
More detailed information on the DFI Group, including country information, reference materials and country contacts are now available on the Members Only part of this website. This part of the site includes training methodologies, and other technical information and is updated regularly. By the sensitive nature of some of the material we do have to restrict access to members of country teams and regional partners. To register your wish to apply for access to this part of the site, click here.
Single-country advisory and capacity-building missions, resident advisors and single or multi-country training/ capacity-building workshops in 34 African and Latin American countries funded by the governments of Austria, Denmark, the European Union, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US, and UNDP, UNCTAD and the World Bank.
The missions and advisors have assisted countries to analyse their needs in reinforcing their institutional capacity to design external and domestic debt and financing strategies, and to design, refine and implement such strategies. Among the highlights of this work have been the invention of the first coordinated mechanisms for relief on multilateral debt (Multilateral Debt Funds); assisting 5 of the first 6 countries eligible for the HIPC Initiative to gain their maximum entitlement to relief under the Initiative; the invention of "live" training on debt sustainability and strategy analysis using a country's own data; integrated capacity-building on external and domestic debt strategy; and the invention of "live" training on debt renegotiation, using a country's own data and documents to simulate relief negotiations with its major creditors.
The training events have focussed on Debt Strategy and Negotiation including:
In recognition of our successes in this field, seven donor European governments have committed US$27 million over 1997-2004 to a Debt Strategy and Analysis Capacity-Building Programme for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, for which we have created a subsidiary company, Debt Relief International (DRI), as a non-profit implementing agency.
International Debt Policy Studies
The DFI group (formerly EFA) is one of the best known independent advisory groups on international debt policy, including advisory studies for the Swedish and UK Governments, Group of 24, Commonwealth Secretariat, UNCTAD and UNDP on the HIPC Initiative, Domestic Debt Reduction, the Fiscal Burden of Debt, Linking Debt Relief and Poverty Reduction, Multilateral Debt Reduction, Debt Conversion and Bilateral Debt Reduction.
Since 1993 DFI has analysed the impact of aid on development, including:
This work has been funded by the British, Danish and Swedish governments and the EU.
Funded by governments of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and UK, European Union and African Economic Research Consortium, including:
The DFI Group turnover has risen sharply, with a total budget for 1997-2004 of US$29 million. We have 41 projects currently under implementation. Our staff complement has risen to 14, including Matthew Martin, (Director DRI/DFI); Juan Carlos Vilanova, former resident debt advisor to Guinea Bissau and São Tome e Príncipe (Acting Programme Manager); Alison Johnson, former Senior Economist at the Commonwealth Secretariat (Programme Manager, DRI / DFI); Nils Bhinda and Hendrie Scheun (Programme Managers, Private Capital, DFI). However, most of our work is conducted by more than 90 consultants, most of them from developing countries, who work in 4 languages.
For more information on Development Finance International, please contact Matthew Martin, Alison Johnson or Nils Bhinda at:
| Development Finance International Ltd | |
| 4th Floor, Lector Court | Tel: (+44-20) 7278 0022 |
| 151 - 153 Farringdon Road | Fax: (+44-20) 7278 8622 |
| London | Email: dfi@dri.org.uk |
| EC1R 3AF | |
| United Kingdom |