Recent Posts
Why Should You Care About MDB Capital Efficiency?
July 2, 2022At the July G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, a panel of experts (of which I was one) presented their report on the capital adequacy of the multilateral development banks (MDBs). The G20 had commissioned the study to get an independent view of whether shareholder capital is being used efficiently, that is, to support as much development lending as possible without excessive leverage and while maintaining AAA ratings for those MDBs that have them. G20 ministers welcomed the report and decided to publish it. The report necessarily [...]
Memo to Administrator Power: Five Recommendations for Better USAID Engagement with the World Bank and other MDBs
June 23, 2022Yesterday we sent the following memo to USAID Administrator Samantha Power, outlining opportunities for USAID to advance US development policy through better coordination with multilateral development banks. The text of the memo follows: Background The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) are historically underutilized assets when it comes to USAID’s development objectives across a wide range of sectors and initiatives. Your high-level engagement with World Bank leadership acknowledges the promise of the bank as a powerful collaborator, but there are significant barriers at USAID to more effective partnership with [...]
A Bank for the World?
June 9, 2022Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that the United States Treasury Department—the largest shareholder in the World Bank—delivered a letter protesting the Bank’s continued failure to meet the urgency of the biggest shared global challenges we currently face. The letter described “specific gaps and room for increasing climate ambition” and called for more “forceful and constructive leadership” from the Bank. This isn’t a fringe position: at a time when governments seem able to agree on very little, the consensus around the Bank’s need to scale up its engagement on [...]
A Bank for the World: Better Terms and Conditions for Global Public Goods
June 9, 2022The problems facing our world today defy borders. Combatting climate change, preserving nature and biodiversity, and reducing pandemic risks are now at the top of the global agenda. These risks and those associated with global bads such as pollution, conflict, and disasters disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable, and join well-established issues of accumulating physical, human, and institutional capital as part of the development mission. As these threats evolve, there is also a growing rationale for taking a global public goods (GPGs) approach to tackling them.[1] As one of [...]