The future of measuring development finance
Over the past years OECD has worked on the development of a new measure of development finance (Total Official Support for Sustainable Development or TOSSD), in close collaboration with the UN.
This Background Note provides an accessible introduction to the ongoing international discussions on TOSSD and the future of development finance. The Note explains the rationale for developing the new measure and explores a series of key discussions surrounding it. These key discussions include whether TOSSD will complement or replace existing measures like ODA and eventually undermine existing international commitments, what kind of financial flows the measure should and can capture, and who should govern TOSSD. The Note shows how these discussions, while being very technical in nature, have potential significant political implications for both the form and mobilization of development finance.