With the World Bank Spring Meetings just around the corner, there is a deluge of news as the anti-poverty lender gets ready for big reforms. This could be a make-or-break moment for efforts to get the bank in shape for the modern era — and the consequences will reverberate for years.
Recent highlights hint at a superpacked meeting in Washington next month:
• “Developing countries will need $2.4 trillion per year for the next seven years to address climate costs, conflict, and pandemics alone,” outgoing World Bank President David Malpass said last week. He announced a three-pronged plan to boost flows of investors’ cash to places in need: The bank aims to create better business environments in its client countries; develop new projects that investors will want to put their money into; and design new investment-grade-quality debt instruments for investors to buy. Malpass has said he will step down at the end of June.