Devex Invested: What Trump wants from the World Bank

It’s the Spring Meetings, but not as you know it.

As Devex’s Adva Saldinger wrote in her deep dive into this week’s gathering of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, both institutions are walking a diplomatic tightrope amid the Trump administration’s 180-day review of U.S. membership in multilateral organizations.

For those swatting up on their way to Washington, D.C., we’ve got you covered:

• The main topics to watch, from debt to climate to tariffs.

• A closer look at whether this is the moment for nuclear energy at the World Bank.

• The trends and biggest projects the bank has in the pipeline.

• U.S. Rep. French Hill argues the bank is “way off course” — i.e., focusing too much on climate change to the detriment of things like poverty and disease eradication.

• World Bank President Ajay Banga defends the bank’s commitment to devote 45% of its annual lending to climate-related projects and makes the case that this does not distract from the overall mission to end poverty.

Read: Is this the moment for nuclear energy at the World Bank?

ICYMI: US Congressman French Hill — World Bank ‘way off course’ (Pro)

See also: What’s inside the World Bank’s $38.9 billion pipeline? (Pro)

Don’t miss: What to know as the 2025 World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings kick off

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Check the price tag

Clemence Landers, vice president and senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, said on the latest episode of Devex’s weekly podcast that she will be watching to see what the price of U.S. participation in the World Bank is. 

If the U.S. is going to remain engaged financially in the bank, then “they are certainly going to ask for a lot in exchange for that,” Landers said, adding that the list probably goes beyond financing nuclear power. “I would expect there is a much longer list of reforms, and I think that will become evident potentially over the course of this week.”

If you are in town for the Spring Meetings, don’t hesitate to reach out to our reporters on the ground, Jesse Chase-Lubitz and Adva Saldinger. Their emails are jesse.chaselubitz@devex.com and adva.saldinger@devex.com.  

🎧 Listen: What can we expect from the World Bank Spring Meetings?

Trump’s tax agenda

U.S.-based philanthropies and nonprofits are bracing for a possible move by the Trump administration to revoke the tax-exempt status of groups working on climate and immigration issues, as well as those that give to organizations overseas. An executive order might come as soon as today, which is Earth Day.

Jesse spoke to one Gates Foundation-affiliated charity that is removing “climate” and “climate change” from its programming and moving its money out of the U.S. Meanwhile, another group is considering delaying the launch of its climate initiative.

Experts say removing tax-exempt status without an audit and other due process requirements would likely be illegal — though that may not stop the administration from trying.

Read: Philanthropies fear Trump will target their tax-exempt status

Persaud’s perspective

Chapeau to Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi for his recent interview with Avinash Persaud — formerly of the Bridgetown Agenda fame, now special adviser on climate risks to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank — on development banking. There were a few memorable lines, notably the kicker about how when it comes to the World Bank, “China’s share is too low [and] India’s share is too low relative to where they are in the world economy.”

But our pick was an anecdote Persaud shared from something “the sustainability person at a major oil company” told him:

“They were investing in these very speculative things, particular types of hydrogen. And I was saying to him, ‘Solar and wind is out there, it works, it’s cheap.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, there is not enough return for us from that.’ So we used to think that the problem was that renewables weren’t profitable. That’s not the problem. For a start, they’re profitable today. It’s that they’re not more profitable than other things. That’s the problem we need to deal with.”

The £900 million question

Will the £900 million-a-year recapitalization of British International Investment go ahead? That’s one of the questions Devex contributor Susannah Birkwood considered in her recent story on the future of U.K. aid.

Ever since the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a cut in foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI in February, the sector has been desperate for more information.

Regarding BII, “there is huge uncertainty,” says Adrian Lovett, executive director for the U.K., Middle East, and Asia Pacific at the ONE Campaign. “Officially, we expect recapitalisation to go ahead, although the amount committed is unknown.”

U.K. NGO network Bond argued last month that pausing new capital contributions to BII for at least the period of the supposedly temporary reduction in U.K. official development assistance, or ODA, would have limited impact on the institution’s operations.

“There is a case to pause BII recapitalisation altogether,” Lovett says, “and redirect these funds to the most crucial, lifesaving elements of ODA that are under threat.”

Read: 8 questions we still have about the future of UK aid (Pro)

Related: ‘A laboratory of ideas’ — new CEO Maasdorp on his priorities for BII

Hitting the accelerator

If your company or nonprofit has a clear social or environmental mission, a scalable model, and a team of four or more full-time paid employees, there’s a new(ish) offer from the London School of Economics designed to help with the next step.

Started in 2022 at LSE’s Marshall Institute with a £55 million philanthropic gift, 100x is an impact accelerator designed to scale solutions to societal problems. Successful applicants get catalytic capital and a 12-week program designed to connect them with bespoke mentors.

“We were launched to fill a clear and urgent gap,” 100x CEO and Director Kieron Boyle tells Devex. “Around the world, we’ve seen huge progress in how to design solutions to deep social challenges. But far less is known about how to take those solutions to the scale the problems demand.”

Most of the ventures chosen to work with 100x aren’t startups. “They’re organisations with refined, effective models — the challenge is getting those models to reach many more people,” Boyle writes.

He gave the example of Karya, a data company from India, which helps ensure large language models work in different linguistic and social contexts. Its time with 100x helped prompt the launch of the Karya Institute, a research and policy hub focused on ensuring AI-driven work benefits the global south.

“What we’ve learned more deeply is how little is documented about what actually works when it comes to scaling proven social innovations — across contexts and over time,” Boyle says. “What we didn’t expect was just how strong the demand would be. Thousands of ventures have applied — in just our first few years — to be part of this experiment. It shows both the need and the opportunity.”

More information on how to apply for the next cohort is on the website.

What we’re reading

Aid and concessional loans have propped up net financing flows to low- and middle-income countries. With looming aid cuts, those countries face a challenging financial future. [ONE Campaign]

Global official development assistance dropped 7.1% in 2024 — the first decline in half a decade. [Devex]

BII and Norfund have shown that development finance institutions can spur more socially beneficial investment by actively founding new commercial enterprises. [Project Syndicate]