Introduction
Last week I put forward the hypothesis that a paradigm shift is underway in international best practice in the area of financing for development. Primarily for the purpose of this series, I shall demonstrate the truth in this hypothesis through reference to the linkage of financing of development best practice to the recovery of stolen public assets. This best practice is framed under one of the four standard rubrics under which financing for development is cast, namely, mobilizing domestic financial resources (particularly in developing countries) in the context of strong international cooperation (via international law, rules and regulations, policies, institutions and peer pressure). I shall demonstrate that these conferences’ results distinctly reveal the several advances in international best practice.
On every occasion the United Nations has decided to embark on a collective global development agenda that decision has been preceded by a global conference on financing for the development, which seeks to advance best practice in this field. Thus far there have been two such international conferences, with the third scheduled to be held later this month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the first and second were held in Monterrey, Mexico, 2002 and Doha, Qatar, 2008.
Monterrey consensus
The First International Conference on Financing for Development was held shortly after the 9/11 attacks on the United States .The clear aim of that conference was to devise new approaches to financing for development designed to cope with a world in