World Bank Meetings

With the spiraling needs of the developing countries, dramatically shrinking assistance budgets, and accelerating impacts of climate change, reforms to the international financial architecture (IFA) are even more critical — and urgent — than ever. The international financial architecture must deliver more with less, and better support to developing countries to leverage resources from all sources, including domestic capital markets and the private sector.

The new geopolitical landscape may make these changes harder. Leadership among the G7/G20 is shifting, and the U.S. focus in this area may shrink considerably. And pressures across the geopolitical landscape may limit the willingness of other governments to seek to advance challenging or complicated initiatives in order to conserve political capital for higher policy priorities. The urgency of the proposals offered by leaders who have long championed IFA reform — Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, Kenyan President William Ruto, French President Emmanuel Macron, and a number of others — has not diminished. It is clear that high ambition and dramatic action over the course of the next 12-18 months will be necessary to even begin to fulfill the needs of the developing world. At the Spring IMF/World Bank meetings, and in advance of the 4^th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), we will need to find a way to make concrete progress.

At a moment when developing countries are managing huge debt burdens while also investing in climate adaptation measures and a green energy transition, the world needs a stronger, more proactive and responsive global financial architecture to meet their needs.

This requires governments, institutions, philanthropies, and civil society to develop and refine technical solutions and advocate for meaningful change through the international architecture.

The Rockefeller Foundation is convening policy makers, activists and others — bringing them together during the World Bank meetings.