The World Bank is weighing a potential one-time capital increase, along with the ambitious idea that donor nations create a new concessional lending fund to address severe development challenges across all its client countries, according to a reform roadmap sent to shareholders.
The goal is to accelerate efforts to tackle climate change, increase the lender’s capacity to fight poverty, and boost support to middle-income countries — including doing regional projects on cross-border challenges, in what would be a huge shift for the bank.
Notably, the 20-page evolution roadmap obtained by Devex says the bank’s mission needs to more clearly reflect a focus on “global public goods,” such as climate change and pandemic preparedness. This would also mean stepping up support to climate-vulnerable countries, even if their income levels place them above the poverty lines for the most concessional lending.
About the author
Shabtai Gold
Shabtai Gold is a Senior Reporter based in Washington. He covers multilateral development banks, with a focus on the World Bank, along with trends in development finance. Prior to Devex, he worked for the German Press Agency, dpa, for more than a decade, with stints in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, before relocating to Washington to cover politics and business.
