NEW DELHI: Lawrence Summers and N K Singh, the cochairs of the expert group on strengthening multilateral development banks (MDBs), have said that the reform issues and challenges are broad and complex, and reaching an agreement around a set of measures will not be easy for shareholders, given their divergent views.
In a blog post on the ICRIER website, the co-chairs, however, said that the shareholders of MDBs have signalled their interest in reforms to make them 21st century ready.
“New cross-border challenges — climatechange, pandemics, fragility, migration — require new finance capacity and new approaches. The total flow of support from the World Bank and other MDBs to developing countries was $192 billion in 2022. While this is a substantial figure, it is a third less than the share ofdeveloping country GDP attained in 2009 (during the global finance crisis), even as the need for investments in assuring that development is sustainable has greatly increased,” they said.
While inviting suggestions, the expert group said it wants solutions that must recognise the interests of all countries, and not pit some against others. “MDBs cannot fill all finance gaps. Rather their finance and other forms of support must be targeted to maximise impact and to unlock even larger flows from other sources,” the co-chairs said as they raced to finalise their report by the end of June.
In a blog post on the ICRIER website, the co-chairs, however, said that the shareholders of MDBs have signalled their interest in reforms to make them 21st century ready.
“New cross-border challenges — climatechange, pandemics, fragility, migration — require new finance capacity and new approaches. The total flow of support from the World Bank and other MDBs to developing countries was $192 billion in 2022. While this is a substantial figure, it is a third less than the share ofdeveloping country GDP attained in 2009 (during the global finance crisis), even as the need for investments in assuring that development is sustainable has greatly increased,” they said.
While inviting suggestions, the expert group said it wants solutions that must recognise the interests of all countries, and not pit some against others. “MDBs cannot fill all finance gaps. Rather their finance and other forms of support must be targeted to maximise impact and to unlock even larger flows from other sources,” the co-chairs said as they raced to finalise their report by the end of June.