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The World Bank is about 18 months into its efforts to reform the institution in response to shareholder demands and changing global needs. From stretching its existing funding to attracting more private capital, the bank has laid a laundry list of proposals on the table.
So what has been accomplished thus far and what more is needed? That’s what we tackle in the first episode of a special edition podcast during this year’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, which take place in Washington D.C. this week. The bank has a new capital adequacy framework to get more out of its own money, a new mission statement making climate change part of its core ambition, and of course a new leader in Ajay Banga.
Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, helps to parse what’s happened so far and break down the paper released last week by the Development Committee, a joint group of the boards of governors of the World Bank and IMF, which she called “tantalizingly vague.”
Multilateral development bank reform is a perennial topic, so there are many familiar proposals. For example, it’s not the first time the bank has revamped its corporate scorecard, which it uses to measure its results. The bank also proposes a new grand challenge program, a knowledge platform, and a Liveable Planet Fund, to help support incentives for countries — particularly middle-income — to borrow for projects that address global public goods, including climate.
“A lot of these things aren't new. And we know within the institution, I think there's always been a certain amount of resistance to change,” she said.
The host, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger, also speaks to Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University about the tension between borrower countries and shareholders, and with Stephanie von Friedeburg, managing director of banking and capital markets advisory at Citi, about what the bank could do better to reform how it engages with private financial institutions.
And you’ll also hear from Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, who is vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, about the odds the World Bank will manage to raise more money from the U.S., and what commitments it needs to make to get the money.
Listen to the episode to learn more about World Bank reforms and the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings on a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.
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About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
