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World Bank chief's role on Trump-led Board of Peace prompts questions
Does President Ajay Banga's participation on the board blur the bank's neutrality, or is it a smart move?
The post-Axel era at the World Bank
Axel van Trotsenburg has retired from the bank's second-highest role after nearly four decades. What does his departure mean for the multilateral lender, and what kind of legacy does he leave behind?
Anna Bjerde: Country compacts are a 'game-changer' for World Bank
Anna Bjerde explains why country-owned compacts, stronger cross-border connectivity along the Lobito Corridor, and water are emerging as core pillars of the bank’s Africa agenda.
To solve Africa’s jobs crisis, measure music like manufacturing
Opinion: The World Bank has spent decades making it easier to start businesses in Africa. What if it spent the next decade making it easier to monetize creativity on the continent?
For the ‘outcomes reflex’ to become a World Bank norm, incentives are key
Opinion: As the World Bank’s outcome-oriented approach takes hold, aligning incentives will ensure this shift is a durable one.
Mounting questions over World Bank’s sweeping consultant purge
Insiders challenge the World Bank's plan to eliminate 22,000 STC roles by 2027, citing operational challenges, U.S. visa politics, and mounting staff anxiety.
What are the key issues at stake at the G20 summit in South Africa?
Debt, inequality, and climate finance dominate the agenda, but boycotts and geopolitical rifts threaten to overshadow South Africa’s historic year at the helm.
Devex Invested: The end of short-term World Bank consultants
Plus, how the European Investment Bank could boost its lending capacity, and the Green Climate Fund’s record funding levels.
World Bank staff alarmed by plan to phase out short-term consultants
Short-term consultants make up roughly 25% of the World Bank's workforce, and the bank said it has become overly reliant on that "contingent workforce."
US budget fight is ‘reset’ moment for foreign aid priorities
And it’s due time for organizations to speak up about the future of development funding, says Christy Gleason, chief policy officer at Save the Children US.
Devex Invested: How a guarantee agency brings change at the World Bank
From guarantees to green funds, global development finance is being reshaped — but who’s really benefiting from the changes?
Devex Newswire: US-based nonprofits race to escape hostile environment
The nonprofits are seeking refuge abroad, with one Canadian law firm saying it had seen a tenfold increase in inquiries, while a U.K. law firm said it had seen a fivefold increase. Plus, at the Trust Conference, a call to work together against rising authoritarianism.
World Bank’s guarantee platform is a pilot for broader shifts underway
The one-stop-shop guarantee platform is driving record deal flow — and offering a glimpse into how the World Bank aims to integrate and mobilize more private capital.
Why the ‘vicious cycle’ of debt needs to be stopped
Brian Kagoro of Open Society Foundations laments the lack of reforms to the global financial architecture, but remains hopeful that the urgency of today’s crises will trigger change.
Brazil builds on G20 finance reform while advancing domestic investment
Brazil is monitoring the rollout of multilateral development bank reforms advanced under its G20 presidency while launching new domestic measures to mobilize private and international finance for its green transition.
Why Tunisia’s former prime minister is optimistic about Africa’s future
Former Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa says Africa’s young population and human capital hold the key to turning its economic challenges into opportunities — but only if leaders can strengthen governance and build strategic partnerships.
The ‘tax era’ of development takes shape amid shrinking aid
Experts say domestic resource mobilization — and smarter, fairer, more effective tax systems — are more important than ever to help countries fund their own development.
Experts press G20 to make debt relief faster and fairer
At Devex Impact House, AfriCatalyst's Daouda Sembene called for urgent reforms of the G20 Common Framework.
The global finance rethink behind the green transition
As climate shocks mount, leaders say financial reform must finally unite climate action and development goals.
How MDBs can be 'creative and innovative' in today’s environment
The managing director of Africa's Trade and Development Bank talks silver linings to the aid cuts for multilateral development banks.
Africa Finance Corporation works to tap hundreds of billions of dollars
AFC's Samaila Zubairu wants to help the continent fund its own development.
It's time to move beyond Africa's potential, says AFC chief
Samaila Zubairu, president and CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation, says we "need to find ways to intentionally transform that potential to progress and prosperity for all our people."
New G7 council aims to mobilize private capital for infrastructure
On the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, global finance leaders discussed how the new G7 Infrastructure Investment Council will strengthen collaboration across DFIs and institutional investors.
Amid shutdown and transformation, what’s going on with MCC and DFC?
“We have had a role internationally going back decades, and it's been important to us, and I think it will continue to be important to us,” said Alice Albright, former head of MCC. “I think the question is, what is fit for purpose?”
Devex Invested: How credit methodology could unlock billions for MDBs
Inside S&P Global Ratings’ changes to the way it evaluates MDB risk which it says could unlock up to $800 billion. Plus, everything you missed at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings.
How private investors want to engage with development finance
For years, development finance leaders have talked about the need to attract private capital. But what can we learn from the deals that have already taken place?
As aid shrinks, top philanthropies test new ways to spur economic growth
As old growth models falter, the Gates Foundation and, more recently, Open Philanthropy are testing new ways to help low- and middle-income countries prosper. They’re able to take risks, test ideas, and inform policy reforms that multilateral banks and bilateral donors often can’t.
From aid to investment: Reshaping Africa’s path to growth
A shift from aid to investment will require stronger institutions, better-prepared projects, and renewed focus on local capacity, African leaders said at Devex Impact House on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings.
How United Way is transferring power to a local level
United Way is one of the world's largest nonprofits, but it is focused on ways that it can help bring about small-scale change, says its CEO.
Citizens of the world's most generous donor favor its aid expenditures
The director general of Norway's development agency offers some reasons that the country's public wants to spend money on international development.
Special edition: In search of a new development finance framework
Highlights from last week's World Bank-IMF annual meetings.
Did the world get the development paradigm backward in 2015?
AFD’s Rémy Rioux, Rockefeller’s Julia Frifield, and DBSA’s Boitumelo Mosako discuss the reimagining of development’s financial architecture — and whether 2015, a key year for development, could have set the world up in a more strategic way.
Devex Newswire: Will the World Bank's accountability structure overhaul weaken it?
The World Bank plans to reform its accountability framework. Plus, Devex’s new flagship project to illustrate the magnitude of cuts to U.S. aid.
World Bank pledges ‘no regression’ as it weighs accountability overhaul
As the bank tries to streamline overlapping functions, board members sought to assure civil society groups that communities negatively affected by the institution's projects will have the same level of access to accountability functions.
Dependency to opportunity: Making cheap power work for poorer countries
As renewables reshape global development, experts say the real prize for LMICs isn’t mineral wealth but affordable energy — and the ability to use it to build industries, create jobs, and drive growth on their own terms.
Could centering agribusiness be the key to tackling food insecurity?
IFC’s Anup Jagwani and Somalia’s Abdihakim Ainte made the case for a more business-driven approach to agriculture — one that leans on technology, private finance, and stronger rural markets.