Public Finance Management

Investment hates uncertainty—when tax rules change, investments change with them.   And a recent survey shows that this is particularly true in the energy sector   Last week, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) released their “Tax Stability for Energy Dominance” report which surveyed clean energy investors and developers representing over $15 billion in investments.   The good news is most investors expect to increase their investments over the next three years if there are no policy modifications to federal energy tax credits. This makes sense. Energy demand is rising, project costs are stable, and domestic clean energy supply chains are building out rapidly.   However, if tax policy shifts, investors will drift.   The ACORE survey finds that if tax credits go away or uncertainty is injected into markets, 84% of investors and 73% of developers anticipate decreasing their activity in clean energy.   And of course, this makes sense too. The deals, contracts, and investments that these investors planned were built on the expectation of stable policy. When that policy is changed, investors and developers will reconsider their actions.   To be blunt, America cannot afford to undercut clean energy’s momentum right now.   We are facing the largest increase in energy demand since World War 2, and we need every electron on our grid to meet this challenge. Pulling the rug out from under these projects will only reduce investment, destroy jobs, and raise energy costs.   Read more from this timely survey: https://lnkd.in/exzbR6Xy

New International Energy Agency (IEA) analysis shows 39 economies have cut energy taxes since the Iran war began, with Europe accounting for nearly half. Problematically most measures are untargeted: • Broad tax cuts dominate over income-tested relief • Price caps and subsidies are being widely deployed • Over 80% of European fiscal support lacks clear targeting This matters for three reasons: 1) Fiscal pressure: With already elevated debt levels, blanket subsidies risk further stretching public finances without proportional impact. 2) Market distortion: Untargeted support dampens price signals. That reduces incentives to cut consumption and delays the shift to electrification and efficiency. 3) Limited effectiveness: When many countries subsidise simultaneously, the effect cancels out. Higher global demand can push prices up, benefiting exporters rather than consumers. There are better examples. Targeted, temporary support aimed at vulnerable groups or specific sectors can cushion the shock without undermining long-term transition goals. The current trajectory suggests a familiar pattern: short-term political pressure overriding longer-term energy and fiscal strategy.

Cross-border payments doubled over the past decade. The banks processing them declined by 50%. This isn't a story about winners and losers. It's about the equilibrium that emerges when coordination costs exceed private returns. Swipe through the carousel for the full breakdown. • Fintech innovation increased cross-border payment initiation. • Better UX, lower friction, more access to the front end. • But correspondent banking infrastructure retreated—not because of disruption, but because of cost structure. Why you might ask? • AML/CFT compliance carries fixed costs. Those costs are the same whether you process 100 transactions or 100,000. • High-volume corridors remain viable. Low-volume corridors don't cover the compliance overhead. The result is rational concentration. • Latin America: -50% correspondent relationships • Eastern Africa: -30% • Europe: -20% • US/Canada: 0% Every player is making economically rational decisions. The system produces concentration anyway. Why can't innovation solve this? • Because cross-border payments are two-sided markets across sovereign jurisdictions. • You need coordination between: payors, payees, two regulatory regimes, two currencies, two legal systems, two settlement windows. BIS research confirms: • Overcoming interoperability barriers increased domestic payment usage by 50%+ (India UPI). • But domestically, 90%+ of RTGS systems are owned/operated by central banks. Public sector coordination enabled that interoperability. Cross-border? No equivalent coordination mechanism exists. 100 fast payment systems operational. Most can't connect across borders. The infrastructure gap isn't technical. It's coordination. Private actors optimize for their network economics. Interoperability requires cross-border public infrastructure coordination. Until that coordination exists, the structural outcome is predictable: More payments hitting fewer rails. Geographic concentration. Capacity constraints in high-volume corridors. Access gaps in low-volume ones. This is the market equilibrium we've reached. The question is: what coordination mechanisms can shift it? Infrastructure beats innovation—not because innovation fails, but because infrastructure coordination is a public good problem. What coordination mechanisms do you see emerging? Drop your take in the comments 👇 Working on cross-border infrastructure? Repost this for your network. #Payments #CrossBorder #Infrastructure #Policy

📢Exciting News I am pleased to share World Bank Group’s Benchmarking Infrastructure Development website which was just launched, a comprehensive database revealing legal reforms in #PPP governance across regions. Dive into the data & access information on global infrastructure development practices. https://bpp.worldbank.org/ This database provides information on the latest data related to the quality of the legal and regulatory frameworks for preparing, procuring, and managing public-private partnerships (PPPs) and unsolicited proposals (USPs). This latest database update reveals that out of 140 economies assessed, 60 have enacted reforms between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2022. Those reforms show that economies are improving their scores (range 0–100) as they adopt best practices. While not all regulatory changes impacted the measured benchmarks, the data show score increases in all four thematic areas since the data presented in BID 2020. While not all reforms have had a profound impact on the quality of the legal environment for PPPs, there are notable exceptions.  An important element in establishing a robust PPP framework is the creation of a dedicated PPP unit. The BID website hosts an extraordinary wealth of data that is underpinned by collection efforts in each of the 140 economies covered. Are you curious about regional trends or how different income levels stack up? The revamped BID site's got you covered with aggregate data that is easy to navigate. But that's not all, you can dive deep into the world of good international practices and see how they spread (or not) across the planet. Reader can also get their hands on the full survey for each economy, assess the latest reforms, and spot the practices that are still on the to-do list. Moreover, the user can easily download an economy summary PDF to pinpoint areas ripe for reform. Finally, the full database can be downloaded, and it captures the legal basis for more than 100 questions in the 140 economies. Please note that the forthcoming Benchmarking Infrastructure Development report that is based on this updated database, and which will delve into the reforms in detail and provide valuable insights and analysis on global PPP practices and legal standards, will come out in the next few months.   Those interested in countries of South Asia can access the database and delve deeper.  

I’ve spent a significant amount of time in India over the years with many of our partners, including advocating for our efforts in Mathura-Vrindavan – a major pilgrimage centre, where rising population and visitor numbers are placing increasing pressure on already stretched waste management systems. Without intervention, the gap between waste generation and effective management will only widen. In this article, I share how we’ve worked with local authorities and partners such as Recity to establish a more formalised system – one that connects collection, sorting, and material recovery, helping to close a critical gap in the waste value chain. The early impact is encouraging: a facility that can process up to 300 tonnes of municipal waste per day, formal employment opportunities for local workers under safer conditions, and the foundations of a system that improves traceability and accountability across the value chain. It is still early days in India and there is no single model that will work across its diverse contexts. At the Alliance, we are focused on bringing together stakeholders across the ecosystem to build practical, locally grounded systems that make circularity work in real-world conditions.

Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School - The Next Frontier in Digital Asset Market Infrastructure: Lessons from Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) - The latest report from CCAF maps the global transformation of market infrastructure through the lens of DPI — from real-time payments to digital IDs and consent-based data sharing. - The implications for the future of digital assets and tokenized finance are massive. Five Insights on the Infrastructure Shaping Digital Markets: 1. DPI Meets Traditional Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) - DPI like India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix are converging with FMIs such as RTGS and clearing houses — redefining how value moves in a digital economy. - The ability for non-banks to directly settle in central bank money, as seen in Brazil’s Pix, shows how market rails are opening up. 2. Modular & Open-Source Infrastructure as a Competitive Edge - Open APIs, modular infrastructure, and consent-based data sharing create composable financial ecosystems. - Think of it like Lego blocks for finance — enabling fintechs, banks, and DeFi protocols to build faster, more tailored solutions, but governance and interoperability will be key to prevent fragmentation. 3. Emerging Markets Are Proving Grounds for Infrastructure Innovation - With 113 jurisdictions deploying at least one DPI pillar, emerging markets like India and Brazil are setting global precedents. - For example, India’s UPI processes over 17 billion transactions monthly, outpacing even Visa and Mastercard domestically 4. Regulatory Coordination is Lagging Infrastructure Development - The report warns of a regulatory "knowledge gap" — the pace of market infrastructure innovation is outstripping regulators' capacity to oversee risks like data misuse, concentration, and exclusion. - Coordinated, cross-border regulatory frameworks will be critical as DPI and tokenised markets mature. 5. DPI as a Catalyst for Tokenisation and Digital Assets - By embedding digital identity, instant payments, and secure data sharing, DPI creates the foundation for broader adoption of tokenised assets, programmable finance, and embedded financial services. - Without such infrastructure, digital asset markets remain siloed and friction-laden. Real-World Parallel - In tokenisation, the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime is laying new rails for trading digital securities — but it’s jurisdictions with mature DPI that will have a competitive advantage in scaling these markets. So What? - For digital asset innovators, policymakers, and financial institutions: DPI is not just about financial inclusion — it’s the infrastructure layer for the future of digital markets. - The race is on to build, govern, and standardise this infrastructure globally — those who lead will define the next era of finance. Great work Pavle Avramović, Sanya Juneja, Yue Wu, krishnamurthy S and Bryan Zhang

Global Regulatory Trends for Digital Public Infrastructure... #DPI This Timely Report Explores ... ➟ How foundational DPI systems, such as digital identity, real-time payments and consent-based data sharing frameworks, are transforming financial ecosystems by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs and expanding access to financial services. ➟ Institutional case studies and direct engagements with central banks, regulators, technologists and policymakers, the report offers practical insights to help navigate the governance and regulatory implications of DPI at scale. ➟ Evidence from 113 jurisdictions that have adopted at least one core DPI component, with 56 implementing all 3, the report signals a global shift toward integrated DPI and digital financial services (DFS) infrastructure. ➟ Governance, security and interoperability challenges, requiring regulators to adapt and find new ways to balance innovation with oversight. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▣ Evolving DPI landscape Global case studies provide valuable insights into the diverse approaches by different jurisdictions as they begin to implement DPI. For example, India’s #UPI exemplifies a government and private sector-led model that has rapidly accelerated digital payments adoption, whereas Brazil’s #Pix system demonstrates how a regulator-driven but industry inclusive approach can achieve similar impact. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions have adopted hybrid models that balance public-private partnerships with regulatory oversight. ➟ Early empirical evidence shows that jurisdictions with all core components coincide with better outcomes across DFS indicators - 1. Increase in debit or credit card ownership 2. Digital payment usage. 3. Better access to credit, 4. Effective government support delivery 5. Increased financial resilience. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ➟ Concluding... What becomes clear from these experiences is that there is no single way to develop DPI. Instead, each jurisdiction should navigate its unique context, balancing trade-offs between innovation, control, protection, and market inclusivity. Since there is no single way to implement DPI, there is also no single way to govern DPI. Instead, governance models must be context-specific, evolving in response to each jurisdiction’s regulatory landscape, institutional capacities and market dynamics. ▣ Way forward Given these developments, the DPI principles of openness, interoperability and modularity present new opportunities for regulators to explore adapting their traditional approaches to oversight and potentially other regulatory functions ➟ Excellent Report - ‘Digital Public Infrastructure and Digital Financial Services: Convergence, Landscape and Regulatory Considerations’ was produced by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Source https://lnkd.in/dHJCJrXe

Can sustainable infrastructure become the engine that drives growth across Africa? What if international finance centres played a bigger role in connecting global capital to local solutions? This week on the Unlocking Africa Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Rufaro Nyakatawa-Mucheka, Sustainable Finance Lead at Jersey Finance, and a leading voice in rethinking how capital, climate, and development can align across the continent. With over 25 years’ experience across financial services, impact investing, and environmental policy, Dr Rufaro brings a rare cross-disciplinary perspective to Africa’s sustainability journey. At Jersey Finance, she champions the role of international finance centres in mobilising private capital for inclusive, climate-resilient growth. Framing the urgency of the moment, she explained... “Infrastructure is the bedrock of economic transformation. Without reliable energy, goods cannot be produced. Without efficient transport, markets stay fragmented.” Throughout the episode, Dr Rufaro shared practical insights into how African nations can move from ambition to action and why energy, transport, and water infrastructure are central to achieving that shift. She spoke about real-world projects like Egypt’s Benban Solar Park, Rwanda’s Green City Kigali, and South Africa’s Rea Vaya bus system, with each offering lessons in green innovation, public-private partnerships, and policy reform. But she also challenged us to recognise the deeper systemic barriers holding back progress. “Capacity development must accompany capital, or else funds will not translate into functioning infrastructure.” So what is the way forward? Dr Rufaro outlined three essential enablers: → Clear and consistent policy frameworks to unlock investor confidence → Blended finance ecosystems that de-risk private investment → Regional integration to turn isolated assets into engines of trade, mobility, and resilience She also spotlighted the role of Jersey, where fund managers are increasingly turning for structuring solutions aligned with ESG goals and long-term development impact. Through vehicles domiciled in Jersey, investments are already flowing into renewable energy, water, and inclusive finance projects across the continent. Reflecting on her personal mission, she left us with a powerful reminder… “Africa is not a problem to be solved. It is a partner to be invested in. If we align purpose with capital, the future will not just be sustainable; it will be extraordinary.” If you are working at the intersection of finance, climate, or infrastructure development or simply care about Africa’s future this is a conversation you will not want to miss. ⬇️ Listen now — link in the comments below ⬇️ #SustainableFinance #AfricaInvestment #GreenInfrastructure #ImpactInvesting #InfrastructureDevelopment #ClimateAction #Podcast

The global development agenda is facing a profound crisis. The ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the urgent need for climate action are confronted by a financial chasm estimated at a staggering $4 trillion annually for developing nations. This is not merely a funding shortfall; it is a systemic failure rooted in outdated, inefficient, and opaque financial systems. The core of the problem is not a global scarcity of capital—trillions of dollars exist in global financial assets—but a persistent and profound misalignment of these resources. Too much capital flows toward activities that are misaligned with, or even undermine, sustainable development. In this context, a new paradigm is emerging with the potential to fundamentally rewire the architecture of development finance: Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). DPI is not another isolated tech solution but a foundational, society-wide set of digital systems that function like the roads and railways of a modern economy. By creating these transparent, efficient, and inclusive "digital rails," DPI offers a pathway to close the financing gap—not by discovering new sources of capital, but by unlocking the vast potential of existing resources and directing them toward sustainable and equitable development. 

$$$ billions invested in waste management across the Global South, but many projects fail within 3 years of funding ending. Here's one reason why... Picture this: A development or CSR organisation invests $2M in waste collection trucks and a sorting facility for a growing city. The infrastructure is solid, the technology works, the community training is complete. Three years later, the trucks sit broken in a yard. The sorting facility is abandoned and covered in terrifying spider webs (true story 🕷️). The city is back to open dumping. What went wrong? The missing foundation: Leadership Commitment. Here's what I’ve learned from 15 countries of implementation experience (and as Lead Author of the UN Global Waste Management Outlook 2024): External champions ≠ Local ownership When waste management projects are driven by external funders and consultants - no matter how well-intentioned - they remain external projects. As soon as the funding ends, local leaders have no skin in the game 💁♂️ Real leadership commitment looks like: ✅ Local government publicly championing waste management as a priority ✅ Dedicated budget lines allocated in municipal planning ✅ Clear timelines established BY local authorities (not imposed on them) ✅ Community leaders actively promoting solutions in public forums Why does this matter? When local leaders don't champion the work, communities see it as "another donor project" rather than their own pathway to cleaner streets, healthier families, and economic opportunity. Alternatives exist. Start with listening. Find the leaders who already care about waste - they exist in every community. Partner with them to co-create solutions they'll fight to sustain. Lasting change happens when communities lead their own solutions 👣 Does your current waste management project have true local leadership buy-in? If you're not sure, that's your first red flag❗ Have you seen projects succeed or fail based on local leadership commitment? --- This is the first of a mini-series where I'll be digging into the 7 critical foundations that determine whether waste management projects create lasting impact or join the graveyard of well-intentioned failures 🪦 We’re all here to make sure waste management projects thrive, not just survive – so please share your experiences and let’s learn together about building systems that communities actually love and sustain.