The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is taking measures to boost access to its resources and help countries better mobilise domestic revenue. The IMF said that it would also focus more of its own work on issues such as equity, inclusion and the environment.

This is contained in a document from the UN 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development holding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, made available to reporters in New York. It stated that the measures were intended to better support countries in their pursuit of the set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which world leaders were expected to adopt in New York in September. It focuses on ending poverty, transforming lives and protecting the planet. According to the document, the Deputy Director of the IMF’s Strategic Policy and Review Department, Sean Nolan, said the Fund would take a look at its operations “through the lens of FFD” to see how it could improve its work.

Nolan said that it had decided to expand access to all of its concessional facilities by 50 per cent, which meant making more money available for eligible low-income countries.

“Working the numbers, we felt we could lend more to lower-income countries.”

“This includes doing more to assist countries with domestic resource mobilisation, or tax collection, a critical source of revenue for governments.

“There is only so much amount of aid countries can rely on. Indeed, often you can’t rely on aid in the sense of relying on certain amounts every single year, it goes up, it goes down and governments fall in and out of love with the donors. So it is not so reliable. At the end of the day, a state operates on the basis of its own revenue collection.

“A developmentally-oriented state, a state that actually wants to promote development through infrastructure, health, education spending, needs to raise most of the money itself,” it said. IMF said that raising revenue did not necessarily mean going into the rural areas and heavily taxing people. It said this meant that taxing the better off in the society and also taxing companies, both domestic and foreign, more effectively.

“Tax rates are very low in many low-income countries, in some cases under 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). This could easily be increased by a series of reforms, as well as by better structuring of taxation in the extractive industries and greater attention to the transfer of money out of the country.

“This includes the profits of companies that are being transferred abroad. If they’re legal transfers, that’s fine. But if the tax code is weak or inadequate, then the country is losing revenue to foreign companies. They should be doing a better job of capturing it,” the statement said. Ahead of the Addis Ababa Conference, the IMF and the World Bank launched a new initiative to help developing countries strengthen their tax systems.

This is with the belief that raising additional revenues will help these countries to fill financing gaps and to promote development.

Among the other sustainable development-related issues the Fund intends to focus more on are energy pricing, environmental tax issues and carbon pricing schemes, as well as helping countries build up their infrastructure.

The IMF which has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., comprised of 188 countries.

It mission is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system in three ways; keeping track of the global economy and the economies of member countries; lending to countries with balance of payments difficulties; and giving practical help to members.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his speech after negotiators reached the deal at the conference, said: “this agreement is a critical step forward in building a sustainable future for all.”

“It also provides a global framework for financing sustainable development. It gives us the foundation of a revitalised global partnership for sustainable development that will leave no one behind.” The agreement provides a foundation for implementing the global sustainable development agenda that world leaders are expected to adopt in New York in September.

They also reached a binding agreement at UN climate negotiations in Paris in December to reduce global carbon emissions. The UN says it marks a milestone in forging an enhanced global partnership that aims to foster universal, inclusive economic prosperity and improve people’s well-being while protecting the environment. The world body said that financing was considered the linchpin for the success of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, which would be driven by the implementation of 17 goals.