NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Last summer, the UN hailed the signing of the Addis Ababa action agenda on development finance a historic moment.

Many people working in development however did not feel it went far enough on concrete commitments. Calls for an international tax body fell on deaf ears, while some were cynical about policymakers re-committing to an already 45-year-old target of countries spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid.

With the international community struggling to mobilise money from the traditional donor governments for long-running development programmes, NGOs and bilaterals are increasingly looking to the private sector, philanthropic foundations and emerging donors such as China to fill the funding gap.

But how do we get new models for development finance up and running, and what’s the best way to incentivise potential investors? Is there enough support for a ‘Robin Hood’ tax to be made a reality? And where will new and old development banks fit in the post-2015 development landscape?