Following the crisis of the Bretton Woods system and the capital account liberalizations of the 1980s international finance has increased to levels almost six times larger than world GDP. A relatively small number of large operators influence the derivatives markets, which are also characterized by systemic instability. Financial crises are a recurrent phenomenon, from the collapse of the European Monetary System in 1992, to the East Asian crisis in 1997, to the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–2008. There are different ways in which financial resources flow towards developing countries; public flows are characterized by foreign aid, Official Development Assistance, ODA, while Foreign Direct Investments and remittances are the main components of private flows. Notwithstanding these external funds developing countries experience continuous financial crises. The debt crisis of the 1980s was overcome only 20 years later thanks to partial debt cancellation, but many countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are going through new debt cycles. In many low-income economies the repayment of foreign debt constraints the budget and the expenditures in human development. Recent initiatives such as the Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the Common Framework do not seem suitable to solve the problem. New financial instruments for development and green oriented finance are needed.