Financing for development: a monetary issue in which money has no say

Abstract

For developing countries, financing needs remain important, especially to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper deals with the problematic of financing for development (FfD), by focusing on what we think to be its major blind spot: money. If development is far from being only about money, its financing does have monetary aspects, which are most often omitted. We first emphasise the current prevailing FfD paradigm and show that it stands on a particular theoretical corpus. In particular, it adopts a restrictive understanding of money, carrying important political, economic and social implications. Against what can be described as a non-monetary approach to financing for development, we consider the nature and origins of money. In this light, the current FfD paradigm appears as inconsistent, while tools such as social and complementary currencies can be relevant. We here explore their participation to financing and their potentials regarding this issue.