Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis

Watch the Replay

Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis

Join the conversation #ReshapingDevelopment

GO TO: SPEAKERS

The event took stock of the pressing global challenges affecting development, both at the global and country levels, and provided a timely discussion of opportunities for the international community.

The panel included leading voices from client countries, development partners, private sector, and senior leadership of the World Bank. Speakers highlighted the profound urgency for policymakers, development finance institutions, and the private sector to find solutions and scale up successful development interventions.

Axel van Trotsenburg stressed the importance of mobilizing both public and private sectors and leveraging not just financing but also knowledge and partnerships to tackle the scale of multiple, intertwined global challenges with a sense of urgency. Amina J. Mohammed conveyed the need for stronger leadership to deliver concrete action plans and be more efficient, while aligning the development approach to a country’s priorities. Minister Ocampo emphasized the value of an integrative approach to face global challenges, such as refugee flows, by mobilizing local, regional, and international resources. Minister Benali underscored the importance of market integration to ensure regional stability and energy security. Dr. Ouma drew lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the African region and conveyed that the international community needs to learn from these experiences to address future crises and other global challenges.

And lastly, Mr. Zelikow spoke about how the private sector can help catalyze financing and work with governments and MDBs to better identify development gaps and incorporate a robust reporting framework—like the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) AIMM framework—to ensure a positive development impact.

00:00 Welcome

PANEL DISCUSSION
02:22 The support from the World Bank
06:08 The approach from the United Nations
11:24 Migration crisis: The case of Colombia
15:14 Green renewable energy transition in Morocco
20:37 Africa's response to the COVID-19 pandemic
25:09 Mobilizing private sector finance
32:45 Live Q&A - Dealing with the climate crisis
36:45 Scaling up private sector engagement finance
38:51 Live Q&A - Food insecurity
41:00 Most important action to deliver country impacts and global public goods
52:27 Hope on the horizon

53:45 Closure

[Music]

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
Hello and welcome to the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF. I am Shakuntala Santhiran, Shaks for short, and I will be your moderator for this event, Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis. Over the next hour, we will focus on the enormous development crises confronting the world today, from climate impacts and the COVID-19 pandemic to persistent conflict and deepening poverty. We will discuss how the international community can step up its efforts and work together to overcome these challenges and forge a path towards a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future. 

Remember, you can share your thoughts on these topics at any time using the hashtag #ReshapingDevelopment. Please use the QR code you see on the screens to post your questions or if you are following us online, join the chat at live.worldbank.org. 

Please join me now in welcoming Axel van Trotsenburg, who is the Senior Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships at the World Bank Group. His Excellency, Jose Antonio Ocampo, Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia, Her Excellency, Leila Benali, who is Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, who is Acting Director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Dan [Daniel] Zelikow, who is the Chair of the Governing Board of J.P. Morgan’s Development Finance Institution. 

A very good afternoon to you all. Thank you very much for joining us here at the MC Atrium at the World Bank. And we have Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, who will be joining us later in the program.

We have a global crisis with multiple dimensions, overlapping, interconnected challenges. We need change to accelerate development. Axel, what is the World Bank doing to help developing countries? How does that help evolving? How must it evolve amid these many challenges?

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
We have learned a lot over the last three years. First and foremost, you have to deal with the crisis but as a development organization, you should never take your eye off the long-term challenges. 

You need to meet a double task crisis management but also long-term development, and during times of crisis, what you need, as operationally, you need to react fast and with volumes. That is what we actually did. We scaled up our operations over the last three years to about 210 billion dollars up from under 30 billion dollars to three years prior to this. What was important is to do that crisis management and at the same time, the longer-term development. What is also important is you can no longer do this alone because these are global challenges. COVID-19 is global, climate is global. So, what you need to do is you need to work in concert to do this. That has actually been good news that we have had as an organization to be able to respond to these challenges. But there are enormous outstanding challenges. SDGs are hopelessly off track. Climate change is off track. We have increased fragility, so we need more resources, and we need to see how we can, in a time of fiscal stress by countries, mobilize the necessary resources, but also tap increasingly into private sector resources so they can accompany our efforts, be it in middle-income countries, be it in the low-income countries.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
We are going to be hearing from the private sector a little later on with Dan. Axel, you've been meeting a lot of countries’ clients here at the Spring Meetings. What are they asking for? What do they need?

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
I think most need more and I think there's a difference here, particularly with the low-income countries. They have been badly hit and, unfortunately, they will need more. They are greatly concerned about the debt situation that is coming up, but they have also been battling the food crisis, so they need that multiple support. We are trying to provide additional resources to IDA, and we are trying to set up a crisis facility that could provide additional supplementary support and we are going to engage the donors next week on this. For the middle-income countries, they also have their challenges, but also the expectations are high in terms of climate financing. There has to be more on the table and therefore I think the reform process that's going on in the Bank is not only taking into account these global challenges, but we should stay focused also on poverty. We need to do this altogether, but we need additional resources and that is the name of the game.

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
Thank you. Axel. Let's welcome now Amina J. Mohammed to the stage. Hello there. Thank you for joining us. Ms. Mohammed is Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

Let's jump right in if we can, Ms. Mohammed, we are hearing that change is needed. Is change afoot as well with how the UN is approaching the Sustainable Development Goals? We heard Axel just now saying that it's off track. We've heard the UN Secretary General saying that the world is far off track to achieving the SDGs by 2030. So, how is the UN getting back on track?

[Amina J. Mohammed] 
Thank you. There we go. Women always hit the ground running. Thank you. 

Look, we are off track. We were off track before COVID-19 it, exacerbated it, and then we had, of course, the war in Ukraine, and that's done even worse. However, what we are doing at the UN is to mobilize at the global level on the issues that we can bring to the table, whether it is finance, it is the transitions on energy, on food, and to agree how we will go about landing those at the country level. That's a partnership discussion. It's a partnership discussion with the international community, it's one with the private sector, but it is one, most importantly, with national governments making sure that their priorities are the ones that we are supporting and that we are engaging key constituencies of youth and of women. Now, the SDGs, we will have a summit this year. It's a stock take. It is in the midst of crisis, and we've heard all through these last few days how bad that is. The means of implementation are not yet there, and that's the discussions that we have today, how can the institutions with what they have become more effective, but how can we also really think through to the future, which is now. 

Our institutions that were built many years ago are no longer fit for purpose and we have to recognize that. We have to recognize that both the ownership, the structures and the responses need to be different. Again, discussions that are happening here today. Many of the issues we've picked up have been that of the debt crisis, which is very real for over 52 countries today. We need to find ways of addressing that with restructuring debt, but we also need access, and we need liquidity, and we need long-term accessible funding. This we know is available, but we need the political will to open up those doors for many developing countries so that we can meet the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The partnerships start with us in the international community, within the UN, within the IFIs, we are here in DC at the World Bank because those partnerships matter on the ground. We have done a considerable amount of work together in very difficult crises and humanitarian settings. But it needs to go further. It needs to be scaled up, so we welcome that. The shareholders have again given us another tool, the evolution roadmap for the Bank that hopefully will get the ambition to help us do the job on the ground.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
So, we are talking about the need for partnership, the need to mobilize resources across sectors. How closely is the UN working with the World Bank and with the private sector?

[Amina J. Mohammed] 
Well, with the World Bank, day and day, we have work that we do on the ground together. In most recent crisis settings in Yemen, in the response that we got phenomenal resources from different partners. In Pakistan, these are two major climate responses. But with the country teams, when we are speaking about the energy transitions, so the digital transformations on the ground, the food systems, more recently, the Transforming Education Summit, this is again another area that we are working with the World Bank on the ground. 

With the private sector, it is a little more difficult. The private sector was a key stakeholder in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals. Many private sector companies have looked at their business models and with the UN global compact have come to the table. What we need to see is the scale of that participation and more engagement with business in the North and business in the South. This is a huge opportunity. We are hoping that some of the work that we are doing with the Bank that will look to leveraging more resources from the private sector will do just that, and how that happens needs to have the private sector in the room.

So, if I would say there is a challenge, not yet in the room, they are missing in action, and while they may be doing very well on the outside, what they need to be doing within development and together with the international community is still a challenge I think that we have to address.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
We are going to hear Dan's perspective on that very shortly, a little later in our conversation. First, thank you very much, both, for giving us that global perspective from your international organizations. 

Let's dive into some specific country experiences now and solutions. Conflict and violence, political and economic instability continue to force people to flee their homes. Colombia is taking a very different approach from much of the world to how it is managing its migrant flows from neighboring countries. Instead of being anti-immigration, you are taking an inclusive approach, including ensuring that refugees, that migrants have access to basic services and livelihoods. Minister Ocampo, how is Colombia managing this? What kind of policies have you implemented?

[José Antonio Ocampo] 
Thank you very much for that. It’s very nice to be in this panel. Let me say that actually Colombia should be seen as one of the world examples of how to manage an unexpected flow of migrants. We had a massive migration of Venezuelans due to the crisis in Venezuela. 

Colombia basically adopted a mechanism that goes from temporary absorption of the migrants to more permanent mechanism to allow them to settle in the country. One of the good things about the policy, I must say, was the fact that the country looked at all the needs of migrants, of course, easier from the point of view the government to absorb, for example, access to education for children, access to health for all the family members, and, of course, working to allow them to settle in housing, less so, but trying to also get them employment, which, of course, I must say, Colombia has absorbed a lot of employment from Venezuelans in a positive way. That actually, by the way, you can say it is part of a broader process that not only involves migrants, but also one area which is critical for Colombia, which is the faraway communities within the country as part of the peace processes in which we are involved. Trying also to promote the development of faraway municipalities, for example, again with an integrated approach, in a sense, taking into account all the SDGs of the United Nations. Trying to see, for example, access to education, to health, to housing, to water and sanitation, to electricity, to information technology for faraway regions, which is generally to all forms of infrastructure, including, of course, the information technology.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
What kind of help or support did you get from the international community to make this happen?

[José Antonio Ocampo] 
We did get significant support, including, by the way, from the World Bank in that regard. But let's say for many of these processes, we have had significant international cooperation. But let me say, in any case, the country had to dedicate resources of its own to many of these issues. Let's say, for example, for the education and health systems, basically were Colombian resources that were put into this process.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
With political will and collaboration with development partners, progress in the refugee crisis is possible. 
Let's take a look now at energy, which is a very big piece in the climate change puzzle. Minister Benali, Morocco has implemented some strategies to reduce its dependence on external sources of energy. How is your country using green renewable energy to create growth and jobs and also to promote regional stability?

[Leila Benali] 
Thank you first for the invitation to this panel. I think this is a great question because it really encompasses and summarizes Morocco's energy strategy since 2009. That strategy has been stable over time. I would say the first key factor in any energy strategy is stability. We have three key pillars. You mentioned renewables. So, of course, we have that target of exceeding 42% of our installed capacity based on the renewables. We reached it. We have a new target of 52% of our installed capacity based on the renewables before 2030, and mind you, that's because Morocco has been one of the very first countries to revise its NDCs to be aligned with Paris. We are very much taking that into account in our energy strategy. The second key pillar is efficiency. Efficiency on the demand side, but also on the supply side, and how you produce, how you transport and how you consume energy. The third key pillar is actually regional integration. There, we were put into tests four months before the Russia-Ukraine war, in the sense that we had a ten BCM transcontinental pipeline from Algeria to Europe crossing Morocco, in which 10% of our installed capacity was relying on, and this pipeline went idle, totally empty. So, we had to do what Ukraine did, actually. We reversed that pipeline to get access to the international gas market. 

The reason why I'm mentioning this is because it boils down to your question about energy security. Having an integrated regional market and having access to international energy markets in an inclusive manner is quite key in our energy strategy. I think we demonstrated it. Luckily, we had to do it before the war, so we were ready when there was the war. Despite, I would say, the volatility and commodity prices, we were able to, before the summer of 2022, have access to the international LNG market. But that's just one example of what I was saying, market integration can give you regional stability and where energy security can give you regional stability. We were able, actually, to work with our European counterparts at the time when even diplomatic relationships were a bit strained, to work on a very kind of unique setup to get access to the international energy market. Now, to get that triangle stable over time, I think there are two things that are now a bit of concern is the fact that these series of multifaceted crisis that the world is living in in the 21st century, including climate but not only that, is pushing for more fragmentation and protectionism in markets. That's one thing that we are trying, as the Kingdom of Morocco, to convince our international partners that market Integration is really key in keeping that mutual dependence and energy security for everyone to have a just transition and future. A second, I would say, small concern that we are having because Morocco having 20 years of experience in pushing for renewable projects, now, we are having a second wave of renewable projects, is the ability for the international financial community, including the merchant banks and international financial institutions, to take into account climate risk in financing renewable projects. So, today, we are having developers concerned about financing solar plants or wind farms or hydro projects, because they are not sure of the performance of those plants in ten years, 20 years’ time, because of the change in seasonal patterns, change in wind patterns, etcetera. So these are two key areas that we are watching very carefully in our strategy.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Thank you, Minister Benali, for showing us that energy security is important for regional stability. 

We are now going to hear about an example of how regional cooperation is so vital from Dr. Ouma. The Africa CDC has been key in enhancing how the region can respond to and its pandemic preparedness. It actually responded to the COVID-19 pandemic better than originally predicted. How did Africa as a continent do that?

[Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma] 
Thank you and thank you for inviting the Africa CDC to participate in this. 

Now, you are right that the Africa CDC performed much better than I could have predicted. I would like to say that the Africa CDC was the best performing intergovernmental organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. I say that because under the constraints that the continent had, the kind of results that we produced were unprecedented in many ways. 

During a crisis, there are three things that are very important. One is decisions must be made. Whether they are easy decisions, they are difficult decisions, they are right decisions or wrong decisions, they must be made. The second thing is they must be made quickly because you are in an emergency. And third, those decisions must have resources attached to them so that they can be implemented. We did all three in the following ways. At the beginning of the pandemic, in, well, at least our first case on the continent was in the middle of February of 2020. The chairperson of the African Union at that time was President Ramaphosa of South Africa, and he took the unprecedented direction of convening his peers every two weeks. The heads of states of the continent met in excess of 14 times in 2020 alone. They were not meeting just to talk. Each session, a decision was made and from those decisions, the result is the success of the Africa CDC that you see. So, they took decisions regularly and they made them family, giving us the confidence to go out and do what we have been instructed to do. They also attached resources to those decisions. First, it was local resources from within African governments, and then the private sector stepped in. Then friends of Africa, when they paused from their own crisis, also stepped in. The World Bank has been a very good friend, and we are coming back to strengthen our friendship in the coming days and weeks. Before the pandemic –I'm not saying that because I'm in the Bank–, the Bank was already supporting Africa CDC in strengthening networking of public health assets in parts of Africa. The pandemic disrupted that, but we had already formed a very good relationship, and in the middle of the pandemic, the World Bank invested again in the Africa CDC for institutional strengthening. I am allowed to say it is 100 million over, I think, three or four years, and we are happy that they picked institutional strengthening.

So, when we look at the way regional efforts come into play, we must appreciate that there are regional institutions that are in place that need to be strengthened so that they can do their rightful mandate of ensuring the region is safe. When the region is safe, the globe is also safe. We have done that with very good results, and we are absolutely convinced that if we strengthen the Africa CDC further, we will delay the next big outbreak. God forbid another pandemic comes, we will respond to it better, with even better results, not just for the continent, but with lessons being learned for the rest of the world.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
So, Dr. Ouma, Ahmed, you've been talking about the need for resources. All the solutions we've been hearing about need resources, need funding, and public funding alone is unfortunately not enough. We need the resources and engagement of the private sector. Dan, the J.P. Morgan Development Finance Institution was established in 2020 to mobilize finance to support the SDGs in emerging economies. How successful have you been in mobilizing private sector finance?

[Daniel Zelikow] 
I'll get to that, but let me just kind of mention that the spirit in which the J.P. Morgan DFI was initiated is that there is a growing cadre of investors out there that are pursuing what's called a double bottom line. Essentially, they want not only financial returns, but they also want social, economic, or environmental returns as well with their investments.

The key for us was organizing some subset of our existing products and services with a robust framework that involved reporting, intentionality and standardization. This was a similar mechanism to what had happened with the evolution of the green bond market, as well, but we wanted to short circuit that, make it go faster, and also make it clear that, in the case of the green bond market, in some ways, for reasons we do not need to get into here right now, it actually discriminates a bit against issuers in the emerging markets and developing countries. In our view, you cannot do development without being focused on climate, and you cannot do climate without being focused on development. So, we felt that it was appropriate to merge the two in our framework. To do that, we formed an MOU with the IFC, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, and we adapted what the IFC had been using, called the AIMM framework, which is an impact measurement framework towards our much broader array of services. Broader because we have a securities license, the IFC does not. But in other respects, our methodology was very similar. For example, it includes certain exclusions on which we will not work. It involves the identification of a development gap for a country. It involves an assessment of the intentions of a development actor, be it the sovereign or be it a corporate. Most of our deals so far have been with corporates. It also involves an assessment of the intensity with which that corporate or sovereign is actually focused on the development challenges that it has identified ex ante and then of course, a robust reporting framework.

So, our strategy basically had three parts. First, with respect to investors, we felt, as I just said, that if investors know what they are buying, they know what the development impacts that are expected, that are going to be reported on, that they are more likely to buy an asset if they are pursuing that double bottom line than one that doesn't have that reporting framework around it. Second, issuers, and this was somewhat to our surprise, it turns out that our issuer clients were much more focused on doing a development finance instrument, be it a bond, a loan, a swap, an M&A transaction, an equity deal than we had anticipated because they want to tell their own development story. In effect, they are keen to submit themselves to a kind of accountability and finance. Why are they using third party money to do this? Then fourth is that we thought that this would make us more successful in working with, not in competition, absolutely with the established multilaterals in the official sector as well as national development finance institutions.

What are the results so far? We’ve launched this in January 2020. As of the end of 2022, we had qualified 380 billion dollars across some 1750 transactions banking, investment banking and markets, all of which involved essentially raising of new capital and that's of the totality of J.P. Morgan's transactions that were qualified and eligible, affecting conditions in the developing world. Perhaps more importantly, our Development Finance Institution team has worked very closely on 42 transactions since January 2020 in working with issuer clients, in helping them tell their development stories, helping them extract why you are trying to how do you see this as being in any way developmental and then submitting to concrete targets about what they are trying to achieve and agreeing to report on those with a regular cadence. Each of them is tied to the SDGs. We prefer in our methodology to relate everything to one or more of the UN SDGs. Others may prefer other frameworks, but we think it works best with the UN SDGs. I think another very important aspect of this is that we have also identified some 75 investors, ranging from the largest institutional investors in the world that are setting up ESG oriented funds focused on the developing world or specialized ESG or impact funds. 

Just a couple of final observations about our approach. The first is that it is an issuer-oriented approach. It is not a use of proceeds oriented approach, as is the case, say, for green bonds. Second, it is purely commercial. We are very explicitly doing this with a profit motive in mind because we believe that that will help scale it up faster and devote more resources to it, both human and capital. Third, our approach is completely open source. You can see our methodology, our results, everything on our website. Then finally, we are trying to socialize this methodology across the ecosystem working on this activity, whether it's peer institutions that is sell side intermediaries like ourselves, asset managers, third party rating institutions, and multilaterals and bilateral DFIs. We had our first meeting this morning of 27 different entities to try and socialize this, which we hope to be doing over the next several months.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Thank you, Dan. It can be a win-win situation. 

[Daniel Zelikow]
We think so.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
You can meet the bottom line and have financial returns as well as development outcomes, positive outcomes.

We have time now for some questions from our audience. We've selected a few beforehand. The first one is for Ms. Mohammed. So, Ms. Mohammed, Bob Malone asks if the climate crisis, which in his opinion is by far the worst of the crises engulfing the world, cannot be addressed without the support and commitment of the rich countries. Is this happening?

[Amina J. Mohammed]
Yes, it's happening to a degree. I think we've seen progress in the last COPs in Glasgow and Sharm el Sheikh, and we will go to COP28, we hope, with much more. I think there are many indicators to whether the Paris Agreement has been met or not. One of those, I would say the handshake for it, again on the finance side has always been the 100 billion. It has not been met. As we said, 100 billion is not going to deliver climate action to solve the challenge of our 1.5°C world. But it is an indicator as to whether the world is going to step up to the commitments that need to be made on many transitions. I think that we are looking for much more at the stock take at COP28. We are already beginning to see that there is a mobilization to do better in our multilateral development banks, to try to leverage the private sector and to see many more partnerships to get it done but we are still a way off.

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
We need words turning into action. More concrete action on the ground. This dovetails into a question from an anonymous viewer for you, Axel. Climate change has its causes around the world and especially in more developed countries that pollute more. What can the World Bank Group do to address such a truly global issue, knowing that it traditionally works with developing country clients?

[Axel van Trotsenburg]
We can do very different things. First, advocacy is a huge problem, and we need to encourage action that is partly also in line with the SDGs. It is the awareness building and then ultimately the action. So, that is one. Secondly, we need to provide analytical work. We have been working with countries on so called country climate and development reports to see how you can get to net zero and what are the options available. Then, you can bring financing to the table and clearly every organization should do its maximum. We have actually been doubling our commitments to 29 billion over the last four years, but this is only one organization. I think what we need to look at is we need collectively we need, literally, trillions of dollars and that is the challenge. That is where we need to point out what we need to do, and we need to have a long-term commitment to this. I think we can act in various ways. Finally, we need to have a coalition, the coalition who is aware that can be from the UN system, can be from bilateral institutions, can be in the private sector. We need a voice that is loud and clear, that waiting is not an option and waiting has a cost. The cost of inaction is much higher than if we were to act and we are off track. 

I think this is where urgency needs to be transmitted but ultimately what we are also saying here at the World Bank has to be translated not into words, it has to be in action and here in this case in financing and much higher financing.

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
So, on that subject, back to you Dan, briefly, maybe, this time if we could. There's been much talk about the importance of catalyzing through the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, catalyzing, scaling up private sector engagement finance to support development goals. How can, how should they be doing that?

[Daniel Zelikow]
I think that they are doing it like in our own case that I just gave you. With the establishment of the Development Finance Institution at J.P. Morgan, it was their intellectual property grafted onto our institution that enabled us to launch this and to mobilize 380 billion dollars from the private sector. That is not because we were so smart, it's because we are big. So, we take their smarts, apply it to our “big” and we will be good. But I do not think that kind of an obsession about financial engineering is going to get us there. I do think that first of all, I would say the world's governments really do need to scale up the official institutions much larger than they currently are. We are very much in favor of much larger World Bank essentially, much larger regional development banks, much larger bilateral development banks. Just because we think that the private sector can play a multibillion, perhaps trillion-dollar game does not mean that they are not vitally important. 

The other thing is that they are by far the largest agglomeration of development experts in the world under this roof. So, how can we take that intellectual capital, disseminate it in ways that will attract private investment? I believe that their intellectual capital is as much, if not more important than their financial capital. So, I think the challenge is for them to do things like more project preparation for the private sector to finance its standard setting like they are participating with our Development Finance Institution and kind of making that an industry standard. This is the kind of the sorts of ideas that I think makes sense.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Thank you, Dan. Let's squeeze this in. We have an audience question from Charles Mills and it is for Axel again. Food insecurity has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, among many other factors. How is the World Bank or how can the World Bank help alleviate food insecurity?

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
We are now focusing on food security. Food has been a problem for a long time. I just recall that in 1974 there was a decision to phase out hunger in ten years. I think collectively the world community has failed over the last almost 50 years to do so. The problem has gotten worse after the war, but it was already in a very bad situation. What we are doing is, at the Bank, we try to respond from two angles. One is the short term. That is a lot on social protection, but you need then to look at resilience, resilient agriculture that requires long-term investment. We have said we would provide about up to 30 billion dollars over a 15-month period. We had a new financial of 12 billion. The demand was such that we had committed that six months early. It is clear that there is an urgency to act, but we need to handle the short term and particularly the long term in the agriculture system.

What I have also said at the board is apart from what the countries need to do on reorganizing their agriculture system, it's also necessary that industrialized countries cut their subsidies. But subsidies, agricultural subsidies are also introducing enormous distortion in their local agricultural systems and partly are destroying their livelihoods and that is a huge problem as well.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
The Global Economic Commission on the Economics of Water was just talking about the need to remove or transfer these subsidies to something more effective.

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
That would be even better.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Thank you very much to our audience for your great questions. We have time for a quick fire around for all our panelists in one to two minutes. What is the single most important action that needs to happen or be scaled up to deliver country impacts and global public goods in this very challenging global environment? If we could start with you, please, Ms. Mohammed.

[Amina J. Mohammed] 
There is not a single most important action, that is a complete fallacy. This is a complex, integrated response that you need. But for all of it, if there is one that we would say outside of this, it is leadership. Leadership that will actually walk the talk. We have many leaders who have to step up and take the actions behind the solutions that we have here. There are some that have shown that willingness and we have a number of events this year for that to happen. This is just the first of those events and I hope that we will see that. So, leadership, delivering on what it says.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
So, action and not just words. What about you, Minister Ocampo? What do you think?

[José Antonio Ocampo] 
Let me actually briefly mention two things. First of all, we need much larger multilateral development banks. The multilateral development bank system has to play a crucial role, is not only private financing, which of course is essential, but the instability of private financing is a major problem even for emerging economies. I think the growth of the multilateral development banking system is an essential part of the solution. Let me say that implies capitalizing, the World Bank among them, not only for private financing, not only for, let's say, climate change financing, but also for official financing, even for middle-income countries and the second is international tax cooperation. The advances in that regard made at the OECD inclusive framework were a step forward, but very limited in terms of the effects, particularly for developing countries. For example, the IMF evaluation says that we got very little from that. We did a much further push in the direction of central international tax cooperation at the OECD framework, but also in the United Nations, because the Great General Assembly approved at the end of last year a framework to discuss international tax cooperation with the United Nations at the center.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Minister Benali, what are your thoughts?

[Leila Benali] 
I can only agree with the leadership issue that Amina has mentioned. While waiting for that, while working on creating leaders who can step up, I think we have to work on the mismatch issue because as you heard in this panel today, there is an availability of pool of funding either from the IFIs or the private sector. But the real issue, in addition to the gap that we are facing in financing this provision of public goods to the populations, I think there's also if I take the example of the energy transition, if we all assume that there is the gap of 25 trillion dollars between now and 2030 to win the energy transition. If we all agree that there is a gap of 250 trillion dollars between now and 2050 to win the energy transition, well, then, there is clearly a mismatch between the projects and those pools of finance. How do we do that? Well, by working on the reporting framework that Dan was talking about. Making sure that we increase the capacity at the country level, in the private sector, in all the constituents in this equation, so that there is more transparency on where that pool of funding is needed to have an impact.

The fact that we are having discussions on climate change in one room, security in another room, biodiversity loss in another room, pollution in another one, I think it's creating that mismatch between pool of funding and where it can make real impact. This is what I would say while we are working on the leadership issue that Amina has so rightly pointed out.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Ahmed, your thoughts? What is needed? 

[Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma] 
What is missing? What is missing is the bottle did not fall down all the way, so that's good.

What's missing is we are not learning lessons and acting differently. If there was one thing that I desire that is not the most important, but one thing, our desire that is done is for us to learn lessons and then we act in a way that suggests that we have learnt the lessons and we do things differently. If we do not do that, then we will not delay the next pandemic in the health security space. We will not delay the next round of hunger as a result of preventable misplanning for food production and storage. So, we learn, and we put those lessons into action. We act differently and then we get better results out of the different actions that we put in place. This will be my desire.

[Leila Benali] 
It's called sanity.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
You wanted to add something, Ms. Mohammed?

[Amina J. Mohammed] 
Yes, I wanted to qualify the leadership and be very specific to the Group of 20 countries. The G20 is important for them to live up to the responsibilities and that is where leadership is needed right now, particularly on the means of implementation to get things done.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Dan, what do you think?

[Daniel Zelikow] 
I have already talked on the financial side. We need much larger official institutions to play their vital role until the governments fund them properly. There are some sensible things that they can and are doing to expand the impact of their existing equity base. There are some other things that I could suggest, but that is more at the margin. I think that the real initiative should come on the non-financial side. We forget sometimes that the day-to-day work that is done by the World Bank and its sister institutions, as well as the IMF on policy reform. Policy work is kind of vitally important for improving macro economies, for sectoral conditions to make countries and sectors more investable. We should not lose sight of the vital role that they play day in and day out. Secondly, I mentioned before project development, we could get every bankable project financed. The problem is there are not enough bankable projects in many countries. More work, more human capital, more input, helping governments develop those projects or helping private sector companies develop bankable projects. Then third, I think that the institutions can do quite a lot to externalize some of the processes that they do for themselves anyway in their regular way business. For example, the ESG risk assessments that they had made led to the equator principles about 15 years ago that all of the private sector has since adopted. That is one example. Second, the standard setting I already mentioned with respect to development finance. Third, public procurement. They are really good at managing public procurement processes for the loans that they finance. Let's see, that extended more broadly to public procurement. So, there is greater efficiency in public spending. Governance and corruption. I think that kind of the World Bank and other institutions like it are doing all sorts of really good work on helping countries, root out corrupt systems and kind of removing some of the distortions that lead to corruption. That makes countries much more investable as well. Finally, they have thousands of people in countries that the private sector or global banks like ourselves do not have. The information network that they create, finding creative ways to make that known to a broader universe of people about kind of conditions on the ground, I think will also improve kind of investment conditions. But all of this takes budget, notice I did not say balance sheet. One of the things that I would consider is whether or not the official institutions could devote more, or their governance structures could allow them to devote more resources to hiring more staff to do all of these things that we talk about, that does not require balance sheet, it just requires people who know what they are doing.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Axel?

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
I just want to amend maybe the words of Amina from leadership. I would say strategic leadership. We do not need indifferent leadership, what we often see. We need to have leadership that is thinking not tomorrow, but basically long term because on that you will need to reflect that in international cooperation, and international cooperation will have to be scaled up and their multilateral organization, multilateralism comes in because people will need to take a view how important multilateralism is in this century. We are still in the mindset of the last century. We need a different way of looking at multilateralism. Then you need scale. You cannot have multilateral at a small scale. The problems are large, and therefore, you need to be bolder on this. What it is, it is a very often defensive world where basically everything is defined only in, “well, what can I do tomorrow?” But basically you need to think long term. If you are convinced of it, then you have to invest. What often impresses me after the end of the Second World War, when most countries were poor and were in ashes, there was far more generosity and there was more strategic thinking. Right now people are complaining, although we are richer than ever. That is sometimes infuriating because in front of a problem that is manageable. When you talk about the billions of dollars that are required over the next 30 years, if you actually calculate that on an annual basis, we are talking maybe of 2%-3% of the world's GDP, it is not unmanageable that people then say the trillion is much, but if you look at the world's GDP of 100 trillion, it is doable. I think we have to orient ourselves on this. And therefore you need leadership, and I would say strategic leadership.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Very quickly, we are going to wrap up shortly. Is it all doom and gloom or is there hope? Axel?

[Axel van Trotsenburg] 
I am an eternal optimist. It's doable. You have to fight.

[Shakuntala Santhiran] 
Minister Ocampo?

[José Antonio Ocampo]
It is certainly doable. By the way, I just want to emphasize one issue that has not been brought up, which is research on agriculture, particularly to face climate change, which is a major topic for tropical countries, and also to increase food production in the poor countries.

[Leila Benali]
What about the question, neither of us understood the question.

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
What is this doom and gloom or is there hope?

[Leila Benali]
No, of course there is hope. Of course, there is hope. But there's no place for complacency.

[Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma]
Absolutely doable. If we do things differently, depending on the crisis that we are facing. Only if we do things differently.

[Daniel Zelikow]
Not only doable, but it's happening. Maybe not in a straight line, maybe not as fast as we would wish it to happen, but it is happening.

[Amina J. Mohammed] 
It has always been doable. It Is a question of whether we Are going to step up to the plate and do it.

[Shakuntala Santhiran]
Thank you all so very much. A quick recap before we end our session. 

In this age of global crisis, with multiple, overlapping, interconnected challenges, we need to change our approach. We need to scale up the global response. We must be thinking more multidimensionally work across borders and mobilize better across sectors to leverage financing, knowledge and partnerships, partnerships and cooperation are key. We must learn from our experiences and do things differently and better. We need leadership, strategic leadership that is thinking longer term. We heard these wonderful examples from Africa of how that came together during the COVID-19 pandemic and solutions from Morocco, from Colombia. We need concrete action on the ground. Those words must be translated into solid action. So, there is cause for hope, together. 

[Audience applause]

That brings us to the end of this event. We hope it's been informative and engaging for you. You can watch the replay of this session and our other events at live.worldbank.org/spring-meetings-2023. Please do keep sharing your comments online with the hashtag #ReshapingDevelopment. We would love to hear from you. Thank you for joining us.

[Music]

"What we are doing at the UN is to mobilize at the global level on the issues that we can bring to the table, whether it is finance, transitions on energy, on food, and to agree how we will go about landing these at the country level."

— Amina J. Mohammed

"We need much larger multilateral development banks… The growth of the multilateral development banking system is an essential part of the solution."

— José Antonio Ocampo

"We have to work on the mismatch issue… There is clearly a mismatch between the projects and those pools of finance."

— Leila Benali

"We must appreciate that there are regional institutions in place, that need to be strengthened, so that they can do the rightful mandate of enduring the region is safe, and when the region is safe, the globe is also safe."

— Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma

"You cannot do development without being focused on climate, and you cannot do climate without being focused on development. So we felt it was appropriate to merge the two in our framework."

— Daniel Zelikow

Read the chat

Economic Adviser in the Country Economics Unit, OPCS, World Bank
Lead Climate Change Specialist, Climate Change Group, World Bank
Senior Financial Officer, World Bank
Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our event, Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
I’m Carlos Molina, with the World Bank’s communications team, and I will be moderating today’s online conversation.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
The event will start shortly, but in the meantime feel free to submit your comments or questions using this live chat.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
They will be addressed by our experts during or after the event, depending on the volume of questions and the time available to answer them.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Our experts today include: Michael Geiger, Economic Adviser in the Country Economics Unit; David Groves, Lead Climate Change Specialist, Climate Change Group, and Saubeer Mann, Senior Financial Officer. Welcome Michael, David and Saubeer and thank you for being here with us!
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
This event will also be livestreamed on our World Bank YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. You can also join the conversation on social media, using the hashtag #ReshapingDevelopment.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
The discussion today will be centered on ways to tackle some of the most critical issues of our time including: climate change, food insecurity, the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and increasing fragility and poverty, among other topics.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
What is the World Bank doing in mitigating the mismanagement of natural resources and country economy in poor countries like Sierra Leone, where the MAJORITY (above 75%) of people are living on less than a dollar a day?
Royston Roberts
 
Natural resources have the potential to drive growth, development, and poverty reduction. The extractive industries sector plays a strong economic role in 63 countries, many of which face challenges such as resource dependency and weak governance.

The World Bank helps developing countries manage oil, gas, and mining in a way that contributes to sustainable growth and development, protects communities and reduces carbon emissions. We focus on strengthening the transparency, governance, institutional capacity and regulatory environment of developing countries’ extractives sectors. The World Bank also supports governments in accelerating their energy transition and reducing the carbon emissions of their extractives sectors by replacing polluting fuels such as coal, diesel, and heavy fuels with less polluting fuels and, in the longer term, clean energy.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
What is the World Bank doing to address the global food crisis....???
SAMUEL WARDLOW
 
In May 2022, the World Bank announced actions it plans to take as part of a comprehensive, global response to the ongoing food security crisis, with up to $30 billion in existing and new projects in areas such as agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation. This financing will include efforts to encourage food and fertilizer production, enhance food systems, facilitate greater trade, and support vulnerable households and producers. For more details, please refer to: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
Good evening everyone! What plans do you have to help resolve the world's economic crisis ? Thank you.
Rejoice Dzidula Goka
 
In mid 2022, the World Bank Group (WBG) announced details of its global crisis response package to help developing countries navigate multiple, compounding crises that are hitting the poor and most vulnerable the hardesThe recent Development Committee Paper (Evolution of the World Bank Group - A Report to Governors accessible at www.devcommittee.org/... recent Development Committee Paper (Evolution of the World Bank Group - A Report to Governors accessible at www.devcommittee.org/...) laid out how the World Bank Group (WBG) must evolve in response to the unprecedented confluence of global crises that has upended development progress and threatens people and the planet. The WBG Governors have called for intensified action, building on the historic WBG global crisis response since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The urgency of action continues to escalate given the vast and increasing needs related to poverty reduction and shared prosperity, as well as to respond to accelerating global challenges such as climate change, pandemic risk, and fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). Led by the WBG Boards of Executive Directors (EDs), the WBG’s evolution process entails ongoing engagement with WBG membership and stakeholders and with WBG Management. This paper reflects progress on the evolution since January 2023, proposing ways to enhance the WBG mission, strengthen its operating model, and adapt its financial model towards regaining lost ground and helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It lays out actions that be taken in the short term and others for further considerations after the 2023 Spring Meetings.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
The event has now started! You can watch the live stream video on your computer while you continue chatting with us.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
The amount of debt that developing countries have accumulated after the pandemic is staggering. How can the World Bank help countries reduce their debt burden? Thank you
Bob Malone
 
IDA incentivizes its client countries to move towards transparent and sustainable financing through its Sustainable Development Finance Policy'. Its concessional loans (and grants) provided to the borrowers, and positive net flows to the borrowers works towards ensuring debt burdens to the low income countries are managed. It also works as a convenor and enabler to promote stronger and closer coordination among borrowers and creditors to mitigate debt-related risks.
Expert: Saubeer Mann
 
What the World Bank is going to do to help poor countries to deal with the impacts of climate change ?
AHMED SONI
 
The World Bank Group's Climate Change Action Plan (2021-2025) lays out an ambitious strategy for supporting low and middle-income countries develop in a green, resilient, and inclusive way. The Action Plan recognizes that climate change is leading to increased pressures on people throughout the world, and that client countries will require support that facilitates sustainable development and climate adaptation. To that end the Action Plan commits the World Bank Group to providing 35% of its total financing on average towards activities that support development and also address climate risks. In 2022, the World Bank Group delivered $31.7 billion in funding to help countries address climate change--36% of total Bank Group financing. In addition to directing financial support towards projects and activities that lead to resililient and low carbon development, the World Bank Group has launched a new core diagnostic--the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) (www.worldbank.org/...). These reports examine the development and climate change issues that our client countries face and help layout the key climate and development priorities for each country. To date, we have published 21 reports, covering 25 countries, and another 20 or so should be published this calendar year.
Expert: David Groves
 
Our planet faces many challenges, armed conflicts in our planet, COVID- 19 pandemic. All these have an impact on the national policies of governments and the agendas of international organizations. My question is: is the World Bank prepared to face these challenges?
Panagiotis Lianos
 
The World Bank Group is the globe's largest multilateral development bank. In fiscal 2022, the WB's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) committed $33.1 billion to support more than 45 middle-income countries; the WB's International Development Association (IDA) commited almost $38 billion in grants and highly concessional (i.e., subsidized) loans to the lowest income countries; and the WB's International Finance Corporation (IFC) mobilized an additional $33 billion in commitments to support the private sector. And, more than 30% of this contributed to climate adaptation and mitigation. More recently, there have been calls for the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks to do even more to support developing countries respond to climate change. The Bank is committeed to meeting this challenge and is discussing different approaches to doing so. Earlier this year a draft "Evolution Roadmap" was released, describing ways that the World Bank Group can "better address the scale of development challenges such as poverty, shared prosperity, inequality, and cross-border challenges including climate change, pandemics, and fragility, conflict and violence, that all affect the Group’s ability to achieve its mission." You can read more about the Evolution Roadmap here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: David Groves
 
As you are hearing from our speakers, there’s a lot of good ideas as to how to tackle the global crises we’re experiencing.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Our online audience is also sending us interesting comments and questions. There seems to be a lot of interest in climate and food security issues.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Africa particularly Sierra Leone my country is totally engulfed in massive socio economic crisis. How can you help to solve this long standing menace, because our people are really suffering that's why many are seeking for greener pastures overseas
Jereford Maclean
 
Like much of the developing world, Sierra Leone is facing numerous crises and high rates of poverty, youth unemployment, and weak governance. Sierra Leone needs international support to develop in a green, resilient, and inclusive way, and address these current challenges. Towards this end, the World Bank Group has been working with its government and has provided concessional loans and grants of around $150-$200 million per year over the past 5 years. Going forward, the World Bank Group will continue to work in Sieera Leone. Its Country Partnership Framework (2021-2026) lays out a development partnership focused in three areas: (i) sustainable growth and accountable governance; (ii) human capital acceleration for inclusive growth; and (iii) economic diversification and competitiveness with resilience, and 3 crosscutting themes: governance, gender, and technology (documents.worldbank.org/...).
Expert: David Groves
 
Talking about world climate change, and world food shortage, GHANA is not exceptional. Food shortage in Ghana is still a problem. 75% of he total population are farmers but Ghana can't feed it self, it's still importing food such as rice and maize. The problem is that in the 21st century Ghana still uses last century's methods of farming. How can the world bank help solve this food shortage problem in Ghana?
Kwabena
 
The World Bank is committed to helping allieviate poverty in Ghana and support its green, resilient, and inclusive development. As our recent Country Climate Development Report (CCDR) highlights (hdl.handle.net/10986/38209), Ghana's development challenges are and will continue to be exacerbated by climate change. Ghana will need support to develop in a way that increases its resilience to climate change. The CCDR describes the policies and investments that can be taken to achieve these outcomes, including those to improve the effectiveness and resilience of its agriculture sector. The World Bank currently has about $3.8 billion worth of credits and grants to be disbused over the coming few years. This includes 22 active projects. The World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC) is currently providing almost $500 million in financing and an additional $12.5 million in advisory services. You can find more information of the World Bank Group's Ghana activities here: www.worldbank.org/ghana.
Expert: David Groves
 
It’s no secret that the biggest polluters are the most developed countries. Shouldn’t they contribute more to help less developed economies address the climate crisis? Is the World Bank conveying this message to the rich countries? – Margaret Smiths
Bob Malone
 
You are correct--developed countries are responsible for almost 80% of historical greenhouse gas emissions, which is driving climate change. The World Bank was founded on the principle that developed countries can and should support lower income countries develop and recover from conflict, natural disasters, and other crises. And, the resources that the World Bank uses to assist the lowest income countries (those that are part of the International Development Association, or IDA) come from the most developed countries. Just this last December, the World Bank Group announced a $93 billion financing package (provided by the World's most developed countries) for IDA to use to support low income countries recover from COVID-19 and develop in a green, resililient, and inclusive manner. As guided by the World Bank Group's Climate Change Action Plan 2021-2025, this development support will also help countries respond to climate change and develop in a low carbon way to limit future climate changes. More recently, there have been calls for the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks to do even more to support developing countries respond to climate change. The Bank is committeed to meeting this challenge and is discussing different approaches to doing so. Earlier this year a draft "Evolution Roadmap" was released, describing ways that the World Bank Group can "better address the scale of development challenges such as poverty, shared prosperity, inequality, and cross-border challenges including climate change, pandemics, and fragility, conflict and violence, that all affect the Group’s ability to achieve its mission." You can read more about the Evolution Roadmap here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: David Groves
 
The Bank has been supporting disaster risk-informed development for nearly two decades. How can this experience be brought to bear for other shocks and stresses to accelerate resilient development?
Joe Leitmann
 
You make a good observation. Indeed all World Bank operations are required to undertake Climate and Disaster Risk Screening (climatescreeningtools.worldbank.org/), a process for identifying short and long-term risks to build resilience in development projects, policies, and programs. Screening has been a requirement for all IDA operations since 2014 and all IBRD operations since July 2017. The World Bank Group is now augmenting this approach to account for climate change risks through a variety of new tools and approaches. For exeample, The World Bank has recently launched is Resilience Ratings System (RRS), which provide a simple approach to measure and disclose the extent to which adaptation and resilience considerations have been integrated into project design (blogs.worldbank.org/...). We also are using a new systematic adaptation and resilient diagnostic to evaluate country-level readiness for adaptation and resilience. These new approaches are being used to assess climate risk to our client countries in our new Country Climate and Development Reports (www.worldbank.org/...).
Expert: David Groves
 
Food insecurity has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, among other factors. How can the World Bank help alleviate food insecurity while the war drags on and shows no sign of ending any time soon? Thank you, Charles Mills
Bob Malone
 
In May 2022, the World Bank announced actions it plans to take as part of a comprehensive, global response to the ongoing food security crisis, with up to $30 billion in existing and new projects in areas such as agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation. This financing will include efforts to encourage food and fertilizer production, enhance food systems, facilitate greater trade, and support vulnerable households and producers. For more details, please refer to: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
Can you provide details regarding World Bank activities on mitigating Global warming?
Dr.Ajit Baishya
 
The World Bank's Climate Change Action Plan (2021-2025) lays out the WBG's strategy for addressing climate change, including both adaptation and mitigation (hdl.handle.net/10986/35799). The Action Plan commits the WBG to increase the share of financing that has both development and climate benefits to 35% of all lending (on average between 2021-2025). (In 2022, the WBG exceeded this target and provided financing of which 36% addresses climate challenges.) The CCAP also commited the WBG to develop new Country Climate and Development Reports (of CCDRs). CCDRs are a core country analytic product capturing the interplay between development objectives (such as poverty reduction, growth, inequality), climate change and climate policies; looking at how a country’s development goals can be achieved in the context of mitigating and/or adapting to climate change. As of today, CCDRs covering over 25 countries have been published, namely: Argentina, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, China, Arab Republic of Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Türkiye, and Vietnam. A synthesis report (www.worldbank.org/...) summarizes the key lessons from these reports and outlines the strategies that developing countries can and should take, with the support of the international and private sectors, to mitigate global warming and adapt to the climatic changes that are inevitable. In the CCDRs and synthesis report, you can read about investments in renewable energy that can provide the most cost effective and healthy means for expanding electricity access to the world's poor; programs to speed up the transition away from coal and to renewables for electricity production; investments in smarter, more energy efficiency cities; agricultural programs that increase resilience to climate change while also reducing emissions; and many more.
Expert: David Groves
 
Thank you for your questions. There is also interest in financing, identifying the right policy approaches, working effectively with partners, and scaling up successful development actions.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
I am Moses from Zambia. How does the World Bank support countries in building more resilient and inclusive societies, and what are some of the key success stories in this area?
moses sialujala
 
The WBG emphasized resilience and crisis preparedness in its COVID Approach (2020) as well as the GRID Approach (2021) and the Global Crisis Response Framework (2022). Through the latter, the WBG focuses on crisis preparedness and disaster risk management, a top priority for strengthening resilience. The Bank is committed to roll out a new Crisis Preparedness Gap Analysis to inform IDA’s financial and technical support in this area. Efforts will continue in the area of pandemic preparedness, learning from the experience of the recent pandemic. WBG supports countries to strengthen social protection systems which can provide adaptive support programs that are less vulnerable to future disruption. The specific needs of women and girls are considered in these efforts. Supporting client countries to repurpose existing programs towards nutrition-sensitive and sustainable food systems allows for more effective use of already constrained resources. Climate resilience is also supported through the GCRF. At a macroeconomic and policy level, the WBG supports client countries to better manage macro-fiscal and debt challenges, restore economic stability, rebuild fiscal space needed to provide consistent services to the people and provide resilience to future shocks.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
How is the World Bank ensuring that when they provide assistance to the countries and communities around the globe the people to whom it is targeted, receive the benefits?
Rawl George
 
It is essential that World Bank development financing and support is received by those for whom it is intendend, and the World Bank Group takes this very seriously. As part of the World Bank Project Cycle, project teams produce an Implementation Completion and Results report to document that the project was implemented as intended. Importantly, however, these reports are then independently evaluated by the World Bank Group's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), which is not part of World Bank Group management and reports directly to the World Bank board. It is the job of the IEG to identify cases in which project assisstance is not reaching its intended recipients. This IEG process helps the World Bank Group’s development effectiveness by fostering learning, accountability for results, and evidence-based decision-making. More information can be found at ieg.worldbankgroup.org...
Expert: David Groves
 
Since the global crisis is so unprecedented, why isn’t there more concessional financing and grants for poorer countries? Has the World Bank increased its concessional financing in light of these circumstances?
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
In July 2022, the WBG published the Global Crisis Response Framework (GCRF) paper which outlined the WBG’s operational response to the multiple overlapping crises impacting the world, especially low-income countries. The proposed framework for the WBG’s operational response rests on four interconnected pillars that combine support to crisis response and long-term development. The WBG’s objective is to provide mutually re-enforcing support by addressing short-term shocks to improve prospects for sustainable development, while developing long-term resilience to help prepare for future shocks. Between April 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023, the World Bank (IBRD and IDA only) has approved 339 operations covering 99 countries across the 4 GCRF pillars. These approvals represent total commitment of $60 billion ($26b IBRD, $34b IDA). $12 billion has been committed in FCV and almost $2 billion to Small States.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
What is the world Bank role and responsibilities when it comes to mitigating poverty, food insecurity, and the money laundering and insecurity it has created in Africa and the world at large? What are your plans to address it?
John t. Davies
 
The recent Development Committee Paper (Evolution of the World Bank Group - A Report to Governors accessible at www.devcommittee.org/...) reaffirmed that the WBG will continue to focus on its vision of A World Free of Poverty as well as on the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. It also noted explicitly that the fight against illicit financial flows is an important part of increasing domestic resources of countries that will ultimately help them address their development challenges. Earlier, in mid-2022, the WBG had set-out its Global Crisis Response Framework with a dedicated pillar on food security that formulated a response to food insecurity through supporting production, facilitating trade, supporting the vulnerable and investing in sustainable food systems.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
I've heard about climate change for so many years but things are increasingly becoming worse; don't you think it's time to change the approach?
Esther Najjemba
 
We agree, and the Climate Change Action Plan (2021-2025) (CCAP) lays out a bold new approach for the World Bank Group (WBG) to more systematically consider climate change in its development support (hdl.handle.net/10986/35799). In particular, the CCAP commits the WBG to increase the share of its financing that meets development and climate objectives (including adaptation) to 35% on average over the 2021-2025 period. The CCAP also commits the WBG to align all of its lending to the objective of the Paris Agreement. This means that if a project is not consistent with a country's pathway towards resilient and low carbon development, it will not be supported by the WBG. The WBG is also engaged in a new process to explore options for doing much more to respond to climate change and development challenges. A draft Evolution Roadmap was recently released and is under discussion (www.worldbank.org/...). It focuses on three dimensions: our vision and mission; our operational model; and our financial capacity and model.
Expert: David Groves
 
Thank you for your questions, our experts are working hard to answering them!
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Your questions will be answered in the order they were received
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Can WBG work more effectively with the private sector by distinguishing more explicitly between the private sector for financing partnership (ie substitutes) and private sector for project partnership or knowhow sharing on the actual activities of development?
Rohan Chindooroy
 
This is a crucial element for scaling up. The Development Committee paper on the WBG Evolution just pubshied argues that in order to respond to the present challenges it requires scaled-up finance from all sources: public and private, domestic and international, as well as knowledge and capacity to implement. Domestic resource mobilization in developing countries needs to be combined with financing from the private sector and the international community. Domestic resources can be used to unlock regulatory and infrastructure constraints to foreign investment or to finance Public Private Partnerships (PPP) that trigger domestic private investment. International development finance can support domestic tax systems and support growth-inducing reforms. International development finance can also mobilize the private sector, which will generate growth and DRM. The connecting tissue is knowledge to guide financing where it has the best impact and to build the capacity to implement development solutions at scale.

Private sector development will play an important role. More can be done to fully leverage the capital, track record, innovation, and employment creation the private sector brings to client countries. Many of the innovations needed for the green economy transition depend on private sector solutions. The private sector can also mobilize a large share of the investment needs. These flows need to be enabled and incentivized by sound public policies and public finance. Yet, private capital deployment remains hindered by actual and perceived obstacles affecting both the recipients and providers of capital, both within countries and between countries. Intermediation by MDBs, through private-capital-enabling reforms, individual project structuring, and active fundraising from private and institutional investors, is critical. Domestic capital markets must be strengthened to crowd in local private sectors. Concessional resources are needed to address market failures and align financial returns and risks. Blended finance (concessional resources combined with commercial funds) is an integral tool to de-risk investments and crowd-in private capital.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
Hi everyone, there have been articles made via the mainstream media by African experts saying that the bank needs to change its approach to financing projects in Africa, and the bank is too slow in getting approvals for infrastructure projects. What is the World bank doing about this?
Toritseju
 
The World Bank Group recognizes that the scale and scope of the development and climate challenge is immense and that the current level of financial support for development and climate action is insufficient, particularly in Africa. The World Bank has initiated a Board-led evolution roadmap process (www.worldbank.org/...). This process is focusing on three dimensions: our vision and mission; our operational model; and our financial capacity and model. Already, the World Bank has proposed some changes, such as lowering IBRD's minimum Equity to Loan ratio, which could unlock billions more in financing over the next decade. Over the coming months, the World Bank Group will share additional specific changes and initiatives to meet the development and climate challenge
Expert: David Groves
 
What are the major priorities of the WB Group in Africa?
Rito Mabunda
 
Under the Global Crises Reponse Framework (GCRF), between April 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023, the World Bank (IBRD and IDA only) has approved 339 operations covering 99 countries across the 4 GCRF pillars. These approvals represent total commitment of $60 billion ($26b IBRD, $34b IDA). $12 billion has been committed in FCV and almost $2 billion to Small States. More than half ($34 billion) has supported crisis response in IDA countries, particularly in Africa ($24 billion). World Bank support for these countries include social protection interventions such as cash transfers to improve household food insecurity, financing to build and strengthen long term resilience to shocks and future crises and improving policies and investments to protect jobs and foster transformation.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
The cost of living crisis has triggered pessimistic forecasts from economists. Many countries are likely to experience recession, according to the World Bank. And consumer confidence is low – a key indicator of a downturn, please give your judgements
Md Abdul Mojid
 
The World Bank Global Economic Prospects report provides the latest forecasts for the institution. Please refer to www.worldbank.org/... for in-depth bi-annual analysis on latest trends and projections.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
With the onset of BRICS and it's foreseen campaign to decommercialize the US dollar. Will this action affect the global outreach of the world bank and IMF.
Kennon Musendeka
 
The World Bank has and will continue to have a global reach regardless of the relative weight of global currencies in the market.
Expert: Saubeer Mann
 
During the pandemic, governments enacted massive fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, thereby growing their national debts. How concerned are you that growing debt could weigh on future growth and long-term economic health? Are there figures to clearly explain how the pandemic affected the global economy and is there a correlation between good health and a healthy economy?
NGALA Chimtom
 

Rising debt levels across the world are a key concern. This was already an issue before the multiple crises hit since 2020. A report of 2019 "Global Waves of Debt: Causes and Consequences" (www.worldbank.org/...) analyzed these trends before the pandemic. Succesive World Bank Global Economic Prospect Reports (www.worldbank.org/...) since have shown that the issue has gotten more pronounced since 2020. The recent Development Committee paper on the World Bank Evolution (www.devcommittee.org/...) argued that this requires a systematic solution building on the G20 Common Framework. On the last question, more healthy people will lead more productive lives, which in aggregate will lead to more economic activity.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
How are development actors mobilizing public and private financing especially for middle-income countries ?
Allavo Prosper
 
The World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks mobilize public financing for middle income countries through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD; www.worldbank.org/...). IBRD works with middle-income countries, which often have limited access to private finance, making these countries vulnerable to economic shocks and the crises that cross borders, including climate change, forced migration, and pandemics. IBRD offers innovative financial solutions, including financial products (loans, guarantees, and risk management products) and knowledge and advisory services (including on a reimbursable basis) to governments at the national and subnational levels. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) focuses its support on the private sector, advancing the economic development agenda by encouraging the growth of the private sector (www.ifc.org/...).
Expert: David Groves
 
How développement actors are mobilizing public and private financing especially for middle_incom countries ?
Allavo Prosper
 
The Development Committee paper on the WBG Evolution just published argues that in order to respond to the present challenges it requires scaled-up finance from all sources: public and private, domestic and international, as well as knowledge and capacity to implement. Domestic resource mobilization in developing countries needs to be combined with financing from the private sector and the international community. Domestic resources can be used to unlock regulatory and infrastructure constraints to foreign investment or to finance Public Private Partnerships (PPP) that trigger domestic private investment. International development finance can support domestic tax systems and support growth-inducing reforms. International development finance can also mobilize the private sector, which will generate growth and DRM. The connecting tissue is knowledge to guide financing where it has the best impact and to build the capacity to implement development solutions at scale.

In the case of IBRD, mobilizing and managing additional grant resources could build on existing WBG mechanisms, such as expanding SCALE, opening a donor-replenished IBRD GPG Fund, and/or new contributions to selected Umbrella Funds. The recent Development Committee paper argued that the choice of which mechanism (or combination) would be appropriate for the objective of mobilizing grant resources for GPGs in IBRD would depend on the strategic and operational fit with the enhanced mission and operating model, as well as donor preferences. It would also be critical that augmented concessionality for IBRD-only countries and MICs more generally do not become available at the expense of the poorest countries. It is noted that, while the Bank manages a large volume of grant resources via Trust Funds (TFs) and Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs), some of which are housed in the Bank, centralized and unfragmented contributions remain the best pathway for leveraging IBRD and IDA bond issuance programs. Further, the potential for Trust Funds and FIF resources to be redirected towards supporting concessionality for GPG projects in IBRD is constrained by donor priorities (in the case of TFs) and independent governance (in the case of FIFs). Enhancing the impact of contributions by TF and FIF donors will entail revisiting the current use of grants.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
Reminder that you can send your questions either through the live chat on this page or by using the hashtag #ReshapingDevelopment on social media. Your questions will enter a moderation queue and our experts will answer them in this chat.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Is it true that after the COVID19 pandemic we entered a new era where crisis management has taken priority over development? Johanna
Bob Malone
 
The Global Crises Response Framework (2022) argued that we live in world of multiple, overlapping crises. To address them, the GCRF developed a framework of support, anchored along 4 pillars, that helps countries to shoulder the acute short-term crises, while keeping a line of sight to long-term development. The reason is that that it is neither sufficient to simply react to crises nor to only focus on the long-term. Efforts must go hand in hand to solve the development challenges our client countries face today.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
What possible ways Pakistan can choose for in order to survive through this global crisis.
Hizbullah Riaz
 
The people of Pakistan have faced immense hardships due to climate change in recent years. And the main message coming from the World Bank's recently released Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Pakistan is: "Pakistan Urgently Needs Significant Investments in Climate Resilience to Secure its Economy and Reduce Poverty". Alarmingly, this report notes that the combined risks of extreme climate-related events, environmental degradation, and air pollution are projected to reduce Pakistan’s GDP by at least 18 to 20% by 2050. The CCDR provides numerous recommendations in five key areas: Transforming the Agri-Food System; Building Resilient and Livable Cities; Accelerating a Just Transition to Sustainable Energy and Low-carbon Transport; Strengthening Human Capital to Achieve Sustained and Equitable Development and Climate Resilience; and Aligning Financing Policies, Incentives, and Institutions to Support Scale-up of Climate Actions. You can read more here: hdl.handle.net/10986/38277.
Expert: David Groves
 
Thanks for your questions, and thanks to our experts for answering them!
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
How does the World bank provide climate financing and support MICs and LICs without ballooning their debt?
Toritseju
 
The World Bank Group's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provides middle income countries with reduced rate loans to make climate and development investments with lower impacts on their total debt. For low income countries, the World Bank's International Development Agency (IDA) provides grants and highly concessional (i.e., subsidized) loans to support their development with an even lower or no impact on their debt.
ModeratorCarlos Molina
 
How can the World Bank maintain his financial support to African countries, seeing that the crisis is worldwide and it’s going to stay with us for a certain time.
Hicham BELARBI
 
As the world’s leading development finance and knowledge institution, the WBG is uniquely placed to further scale efforts to reach the poor and vulnerable, deepen country impact, and catalyze global action. The WBG offers its membership – 189 countries strong – an effective, leveraged, and unfragmented platform to tackle the complex challenges at the country and global levels. The WBG has already provided more crisis finance to developing countries than any other private or public actor: US$330 billion since the onset of the pandemic, US$115 billion of that in the last fiscal year alone. African countries have been major recipients of this support. But substantially more is needed, with increased urgency.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
The global crisis has seriously affected the common man on the street especially in developing countries. What are the measures put in place to address such menace in these countries? Thank you
am kena
 
In mid 2022, the World Bank Group (WBG) announced details of its global crisis response package to help developing countries navigate multiple, compounding crises that are hitting the poor and most vulnerable the hardest. A Global Crisis Response Framework paper “Navigating Multiple Crises, Staying the Course on Long-Term Development: The World Bank Group’s Response to the Crises Affecting Developing Countries” laid out a framework to guide the WBG’s operational response over the 15-month period from April 2022 to June 2023. The WBG made available up to $170 billion in financing over this 15-month period to support developing countries as they navigate these unprecedented crises. With the WBG Twin Goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity guiding our operations this surge financing will make a significant contribution to the well-being of the people.
Expert: Michael Geiger
 
All the countries know the danger of environmental impacts, but they do not take this seriously. What are the reasons behind this?
Justinian Lukaza
 
There are many reasons why the actions of individuals, organizations, and countries can lead to dangerous environmental impacts. One driving reason is that the costs of environmentally-damaging activities are not fully experienced by those causing the harm. For example, a factory often does not face the costs of pollution that it might discharge into a nearby river. But the downstream community does. In these cases, environmental regulations requiring factory discharges to be cleaner can help. Another big example is the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). People and firms emit GHGs as a by product of countless activities. But the costs are borne by the whole world through climate change. This makes addressing GHG emissions a very challenging problem, and one that requires international collaboration and unprecedented government action and investment. The World Bank Group recognizes that poverty cannot be eliminated without addressing this climate challenge as well. You can learn more about the World Bank Groups strategy for addressing climate in its activities in its Climate Change Action Plan (openknowledge.worldbank.org/...).
ModeratorCarlos Molina
 
thank you for all your interesting questions. Our experts are working hard to answer them!
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Hi panelists, is carbon credit a factor in mitigating climate change for Third World Countries?
McDonnell M.Doewell,Sr-Liberia
 
Pricing carbon and enabling developing countries to sell carbon credits is a crucial tool for financing climate action, and the World Bank is working to support developing countries in taking advantage of this opportunity to receive funding for actions that reduce or GHG emissions or remove CO2 from the atmosphere. For example, the World Bank's Partnership for Market Implementation (pmiclimate.org/) helps countries design and put in place carbon pricing instruments aligned with their development priorities. This includes emissions trading systems, carbon taxes, crediting mechanisms, and strategies to access new international carbon markets. PMI is currently supporting more than 20 countries through regional and national programs.
ModeratorCarlos Molina
 
we have come to the end of this chat
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Thank you to all who tuned in! Check back soon for a recording of the event, which will be made available on this page.
Moderator: Tom Meads
 
Thank you
GATIMU@SoW!SE AFRICA
 

Spring Meetings 2023

World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings 2023 Livestreamed events

Join us for a series of live events on today’s pressing development challenges.

All the public events are live-streamed publicly in English with interpretation in Arabic, French and Spanish.

Throughout the Spring Meetings, The Zone provides a round-up of all the week’s happenings.

Throughout the Spring Meetings, The Zone provides a round-up of all the week’s happenings.