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A few weeks ago the Finance Committee of the National Council moved for Switzerland's official development assistance to be reduced to 0.4% or even 0.3% of gross national income over the coming years. That would mean cutting expenditure on actual development cooperation abroad by 30% to 50%. Care of asylum seekers here at home, which Switzerland absurdly counts as development spending, would then account for one fourth to one third of this expenditure.

In the National Council itself, the Finance Committee's radical cost-cutting proposals will hardly find a majority. It transpires from centre-right circles, however, that a call will indeed be made for cost-cutting in long-term development programmes in order to release more funds for short-term emergency humanitarian aid. The call will also be for development cooperation to be more closely tied to Switzerland's own interests, namely to migration partnerships and agreements for the repatriation of asylum seekers.

The work of central banks is not easily understood and often takes place out of direct public view. Equipped with traditional macroeconomic tools of the trade, central bankers fulfil their main function – to keep prices stable by fighting inflation – through regulation of money supply and interest rates. In addition to this monetary function, some (but not all) central banks are also involved in regulating or supervising the financial sector to ensure the health of financial institutions.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, central bank participation in sovereign debt rescheduling and support for the stability of the broader financial system is coming into sharper focus. Depending on the mandate, central banks take on other non-monetary functions as well, such as promotion of economic development, job creation, and financial inclusion. Central banks in developing countries that come under the direct influence of the executive branch (which also raises legitimate questions concerning their independence) tend to make active and creative use of non-monetary functions in ways that can directly benefit individuals and households.

The Panama Papers have helped expose how politicians, criminals and corporations around the world hide their cash and avoid taxes. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), foreign owned logging companies are profiteering, using some of the same tricks.

Recent research by the Oakland Institute revealed that most logging companies operating in the country are not paying corporate tax. Despite decades of operations and the country being today the largest exporter of tropical timber in the world, logging companies barely declare any profit. This deprives PNG of hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed revenue.

Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center of Concern, reports on the outcomes of the first ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum that took place April 18 to 20, 2016 in New York. The Forum was intended to be the centerpiece of a reinvigorated follow up to the Financing for Development process created by the Third Financing for Development Conference held in Addis Ababa in 2015. "[...] those observing the first event to follow up on [2015's] commitments were suddenly awakened to the bitter reality of transitioning from paper to the realities of implementation."