Reports and Papers
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Debt Dynamics and Financial Stability in Africa
June 6, 2023African countries were severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which quickly drove the continent into its worst recession in fifty years. According to the 2022 African Development Bank African Economic Outlook (AEO), real GDP declined by -1.5% in 2020 compared to growth of 3.3% in 2019. Africa has recovered quickly from the recession, but this has not translated into favorable [...]
Mustering the private sector for development and climate in the Global South – Is it realistic?
May 11, 2023The 2015 Addis Ababa “Billions to Trillions” initiative called for stepped-up private sector investments and financial flows in developing countries. But instead of closing, the “trillion” dollar gap between development and climate needs continues to widen. Was it a fairy tale? What is certain is that the current operating model of the aid agencies and the development finance institutions, [...]
Gender Integration in Multilateral Development Banks’ COVID-19 Response Efforts
May 11, 2023Research demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has had differential effects by gender, with women experiencing higher job and income loss, increased rates of domestic violence, and mounting care burdens globally. While governments and civil society organizations were pivotal to mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, international institutions, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) in particular, also played a role in financing [...]
The trillion-dollar bank: Making IBRD fit for purpose in the 21st century
April 12, 2023The World Bank Evolution Roadmap is being developed at a critical moment in time. Developing countries have been hit by the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war, with loss of fiscal buffers, increased indebtedness, and erosion of creditworthiness, leading to a decline in growth prospects and leaving them exposed to further crises. Progress on poverty reduction [...]
An Innovative IFI Operating Model for the 21st Century
April 6, 2023Last year saw major contributions to the international finance reform agenda, including Finance for Climate Action (the “Songwe-Stern report”), the Bridgetown Agenda, and the Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks submitted to the G20 finance ministers. 2023 will be a critical period for implementing reforms to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis while also addressing the other crises facing [...]
Where has the money come from to finance rising climate ambition?
March 31, 2023Key messages There are growing concerns that rising ambition on international climate finance will squeeze out a focus on poverty reduction. This is understandable: total official flows have risen more slowly than reported increases in climate finance demonstrating that climate finance has not been ‘new and additional’. Observed increases in climate finance do not appear to have come about because [...]
Evolution of the World Bank Group – A Report to Governors
March 30, 2023Report for the April 12, 2023 Development Committee Meeting.
Concessional Climate Finance: Is the MDB Architecture Working?
March 14, 2023Our paper evaluates the climate financial intermediary funds (FIFs) which are one of the largest sources of multilateral grant and concessional finance for climate, especially for middle-income countries. Donors have contributed more than $50 billion to these funds. The World Bank acts as a trustee for twelve climate FIFs. In this paper, we focus on the three largest: the Global Environment [...]
If You Want Clients to Borrow from the World Bank for Net Zero Investments, Make It Easier
March 9, 2023High-income countries trying to reach net-zero targets are confronting the fact that existing environmental regulations make it harder to build low-carbon infrastructure. Lobbying groups in the US, for example, are using regulatory tools to block geothermal, solar, and wind facilities. Providing subsidies and incentives for low carbon isn’t enough: revisiting, rewriting, and in some cases retiring these regulations is going [...]
More than meets the eye? Assessing MDBs’ contribution to tackling global challenges
March 7, 2023In its scale and duration, the Covid-19 pandemic was a stark reminder that global challenges need global solutions and coordination. Meanwhile, pressure to contain the increase in global temperatures has escalated. Conflict and violence are on the rise. The international response to these challenges is nowhere near enough. This can partly be explained by the theory of the under-provision of global public [...]
Aftermath of War in Europe The West VS. the Global South?
February 17, 2023This publication provides an insight into the lens through which countries of the Global South view the current period of successive crises, brought about by an ongoing global pandemic and a war in Europe. It highlights how the combined weight of history, culture, and geography has shaped the Global South’s interests and is influencing its foreign policy stance during one [...]
Energy Trends and Outlook Through 2023: Surviving the Energy Crisis While Building a Greener Future
February 13, 2023The volatility in energy markets since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019/2020 has continued, with unprecedented uncertainty about global energy supply developing over the course of 2022 in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, against a backdrop of weakening macroeconomic conditions and high inflation. While some perceived this as a potential setback for the energy transition, others saw it [...]
The World Needs a Green Bank
February 1, 2023Humanity is losing the climate battle, and existing international institutions are not delivering on climate change. Hence, there is a need for a new international institution that would be a repository for global knowledge on climate change, and would advise governments on climate policies, develop green projects across the Global South, mobilize financing for those projects, and support project implementation. The proposed [...]
Tapping the potential of borrower-led multilateral development banks
January 27, 2023About 30 multilateral development banks (MDBs) operate across the globe today. While the World Bank and major regional MDBs (the ‘legacy’ MDBs) have a high profile, most MDBs are less well known. In light of the serious challenges facing the world and the limitations of other development agencies, it should be a priority to integrate these MDBs into the international [...]
Sailing On a Storming Sea: Policy Challenges For Developing Countries 2022-2025
December 29, 2022The current bleak outlook for the world economy, with a likely recession in major economies, high inflation, rising interest rates, and slow productivity growth, will adversely emerging market and developing countries (EMDE) over the next few years. Unfortunately, these countries emerged from COVID-19 with less fiscal space and rising debt service payments. Policies to insulate the domestic economy from these [...]
Climate Diplomacy and the Global South
December 2, 2022One aim of COP27 was to persuade countries to make commitments to reduce emissions and earmark resources for technologies to be transferred from industrialized states to less developed states. Hovering over the COP27 was the reluctance of wealthy states to live up to their 2009 commitment to provide $100 billion to poor countries, financial assistance for adaptation (as opposed to just mitigation [...]
Our Wish List for the World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap
November 7, 2022The assignment is clear. During this year’s Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, shareholders instructed the World Bank to develop a work program for its own evolution (“to identify gaps in the Bank’s current institutional and operational framework…”) by the end of the year. Secretary Yellen led the evolution charge, noting, “We do not yet have a sufficiently [...]
COP27: A Brief Account of Contemporary Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Policies, a View from the South
November 4, 2022This year, the Conference of the Parties (COP27) will be held in in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. On the outset of this auspicious occasion, it is befitting to reflect upon contemporary climate adaptation and mitigation policies, from a southern and African point of view. Indeed, climate change is one of the stickiest policy problems of the 21st century, because it is [...]
Bridging Green Infrastructure and Finance
November 3, 2022This chapter was originally published in CEPR's eBook "Scaling Up Sustainable Finance and Investment in the Global South" The world faces a huge shortage of infrastructure investment relative to its needs. With few exceptions, such as China, this shortage is even greater in non-advanced countries. The G20 Infrastructure Investors Dialogue estimated the volume of global infrastructure investment needed by 2040 to [...]
Partnerships for a just energy transition in the context of Africa-Europe relations: perspectives from South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal
November 1, 2022This report presents the key messages of three African country case studies (South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal) produced under the Ukȧmȧ platform to examine emerging energy transition initiatives in Africa and the implications for Africa-Europe relations. The objectives were: 1. Explore the ways in which the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) narrative is unfolding in relevant African states; 2. identify the key [...]
Aligning Policy-Based Finance with the Paris Agreement
October 17, 2022This paper discusses an approach for aligning policy-based operations (PBOs) from multilateral development banks with the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. The Glasgow Climate Pact calls upon MDBs to accelerate the alignment of their activities with the Paris Agreement, but an approach for PBOs has not yet been determined. To be considered aligned, PBOs must promote long-term macro-fiscal stability [...]
Financing Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Developing Countries
October 10, 2022The provision of international financial assistance to help developing countries undertake measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation is a fundamental element in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under which the negotiations on climate change are being conducted. This paper attempts to quantify the scale and possible composition of international financial assistance that might be required to [...]
An Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks
October 8, 2022In 2022, the G20 established the independent review to evaluate MDB capital adequacy. Based on the evidence, the review panel concluded that government shareholders, MDB management and credit rating agencies have overestimated the financial risks facing MDBs by underestimating their unique strengths. The panel proposes several measures to update capital adequacy policies and make more efficient use of MDB capital.
Reforming the World Bank and MDBs to Meet Shared Global Challenges
October 6, 2022Independent Think Tank Leaders Issue Call to Action for MDB Reform Last July, the Center for Global Development hosted a meeting with other think tanks to exchange perspectives on the multilateral development bank (MDB) system. We shared a common diagnosis that MDBs must more aggressively address the global challenges that defy national borders and threaten human life as we [...]
Operationalize the alignment of multilateral development banks with the 2030 Agenda
October 1, 2022This study analyzes five major multilateral development banks (MDBs) and their efforts to enhance their development impact and meet the needs of partner countries around the world in alignment with the 2030 Agenda. To support ongoing discussions on the need to rethink the role of MDBs, the Study aims to provide MDB shareholders, their staff and development and finance experts with [...]
Multilateralism and Multipolarity
September 22, 2022This paper gathers the Program’s main reflections on the state of the multilateral system, and points to challenges within.
The climate agenda as the central axis of foreign policy in Latin America
August 23, 2022The climate crisis, global in nature, demands joint and urgent actions. For Latin America to advance on this agenda, it is necessary to reflect on possible ways to strengthen a multilateral narrative in favor of a coordinated foreign policy in the region. In this sense, the project "The Climate Agenda as a Central Axis of Latin American Foreign Policy" carried out by [...]
The Sovereignty of Developing Countries: The Challenge of Foreign Aid
July 25, 2022Foreign aid has a well-established and significant role in international relations. The role of foreign aid in the repertoire of international development programs is extensively documented, with its goal being the promotion of human and economic development. Foreign aid can be defined as “all forms of assistance that a country derives from other governments or multilateral agencies and financial institutions [...]
MDB Policy-Based Guarantees: Has Their Time Come?
July 20, 2022Multilateral development bank policy-based guarantees (PBGs) have long been an instrument in search of demand. First introduced in 1999 at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to help governments access market borrowing at attractive rates, their track-record has been uneven, and their uptake limited. The multilateral development bank (MDB) business model tends to favor direct lending over non-lending products. [...]
Threats without borders: Are we apt to cope with the challenges?
June 30, 2022In order to better analyze the various challenges that countries and multilateral organizations need to deal with, situationsthat go beyond countries’ borders, the Forte de Copacabana International Conference will present four central topics of discussion, focused on the following themes: climate change and the energy crisis; water and food security; the Covid-19 pandemic; and technological security, focused on artificial intelligence [...]
Quantitative Tightening and Capital Flows to Emerging Markets
June 24, 2022In its May 15th meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) lifted its benchmark policy rate by 0.75% to 1.50%–1.75%, the biggest increase since 1994. The central bank also signaled an additional increase of 0.75% ahead. FOMC members also raised the median projection for the Fed funds rate to a range between 3.25% and 3.50% [...]
Climate Refugees: A Major Challenge of International Community and Africa
June 20, 2022From socio-economic crises to the scourges of war, through natural disasters and environmental degradation, the world's history is marked by events leading to mass migration, exacerbating the phenomenon of climate refugees. Today, environmental phenomena prompt many inhabitants to choose exile in search of more stable horizons. It is essential to note that no legal text, either global or regional, considers [...]
A Bank for the World: Better Terms and Conditions for Global Public Goods
June 9, 2022The problems facing our world today defy borders. Combatting climate change, preserving nature and biodiversity, and reducing pandemic risks are now at the top of the global agenda. These risks and those associated with global bads such as pollution, conflict, and disasters disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable, and join well-established issues of accumulating physical, human, and institutional capital [...]
Replenishing Africa’s Development Fund: A Time for Ambition
May 19, 2022The stakes are high for the African Development Fund (AfDF) as it kicks off its replenishment fundraising exercise this spring. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are still grappling with the health and economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, with over 30 million of their citizens pushed into poverty since the onset of pandemic. According to the IMF, an extra $425 [...]
Energy in a World in Transition: Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives
May 18, 2022The Energy Transition process is complex and multifaceted, with substantial impacts on the energy industries’ business models. In order to contribute with a greater understanding of this trend, CEBRI, in partnership with BMA, organized a collection of articles that analyzes the main implications of this process, which is well positioned to be one of the major drivers of economic transformation [...]
Paving the Way for Greener Central Banks. Current Trends and Future Developments around the Globe
March 28, 2022Climate change has quickly become one of the most pressing challenges of our society. Financial actors could play a key role in supporting and fostering a shift towards a low-carbon economy. In this context, central banks could have a primary function in both tackling climate-related risks and the ones related to the transition and, potentially, proactively redirecting resources towards green [...]
Country Platforms and Delivery of Global Public Goods
January 20, 2022This paper discusses three potential requirements for country platforms to facilitate effective delivery of GPGs. We propose that existing country platforms be repurposed to coordinate the contribution of domestic and external stakeholders to GPG delivery efforts at the country level. For this proposed approach to be successful, an explicit link must be introduced between country-level efforts and global initiatives to [...]
All hands on deck: how to scale up multilateral financing to face the Covid-19 crisis
April 9, 2020This article posits that it is essential to begin preparing the groundwork for stepped-up financial support to developing countries so they can best manage their response to the global crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Key messages Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have the financial firepower to help developing countries face the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis. The major MDBs can expand lending [...]
A guide to multilateral development banks
June 28, 2018The mandates and operations of multilateral development banks (MDBs) have evolved and expanded in recent decades. Many were created in the 1960s, during the period of decolonisation, while others came into being after the end of the Cold War to support reconstruction, development and regional integration. MDBs were called upon to step up these efforts in the pursuit of the [...]
Six recommendations for reforming multilateral development banks: an essay series
December 1, 2017Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are now the cornerstone of global development. The commitments that must be fulfilled to achieve the SDGs are highly demanding – partly because of the scale of resources required but also because of the sheer complexity of intertwined policies and their means of implementation. Achieving the new set of goals will require a variety [...]
Providing global public goods: what role for the multilateral development banks?
April 20, 2017There is a growing list of global challenges, from climate change and the spread of communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance to excessive financial volatility, illicit trade, cyber-attacks, terrorism and forced migration. In some areas, the world is coming close to reaching thresholds of irreversibility, as with climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Resolving these global challenges requires effective international [...]
Six proposals to strengthen the finances of multilateral development banks
April 13, 2017Heeding the calls of the G20 and their country shareholders in recent years, multilateral development banks (MDBs) have ramped up lending to address the impacts of the global financial crisis, reach the Sustainable Development Goals and make the sustainable infrastructure investments required to keep pace with economic growth. But like all financial institutions, MDBs can only lend a certain amount based on [...]