On 16 and 17 April 2018, 200 participants from 58 countries attended the Global Parliamentary Conference (GPC) at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. Co-organized with the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, the GPC was dedicated to a range of issues from taxation and the global economic outlook to gender, fragility and good governance. This year’s GPC included a special focus on youth employment with the Parliamentary Symposium on Youth Job Creation, co-organized with Peace Child International and the International Youth Foundation on April 17.
Parliamentarians had the occasion to discuss critical development topics during a special session with the President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim and the Managing Director of the IMF, Mme Christine Lagarde, both of whom insisted on the urgency of challenges which lie ahead of policymakers around the world. Mme Lagarde underlined that the optimistic growth forecast is an opportunity to advance structural reforms and increase growth potential: “When the sun is shining, you need to fix the roof”. Dr. Kim concentrated on human development and the need to invest in health and education today to prepare the young for the rapidly changing world. Both engaged directly with the parliamentarians, touching upon the issues affecting growth and development such as refugee flows, innovative financing, subsidies, and human capital.
The questions of taxation and illicit financial flows were high on this year’s Conference agenda. Fiscal redistribution and ability to raise enough revenue from domestic sources being one of the largest impediments to development in today’s world, it is the only way to ensure healthy economic growth and enough resources for public investment in necessary areas: in this way, taxation is directly linked to development.
The critical role of parliaments in identifying key development priorities in their countries and overseeing their implementation was asserted during the Conference. Parliamentarians are the ones who have the power to shape the development trajectory of their countries, notably by promoting the right policies to enable more private sector investment and thus help stimulate employment.
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