Initiative

Build Global Economic Recovery

Mobilizing fit-for-purpose development finance for an inclusive, sustainable future
OVERVIEW

Reforming the Global Financial System to Make Opportunity Universal and Sustainable

The world is neither achieving its goals nor addressing humanity’s biggest threats because of insufficient financing. Today, the annual financing gap for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals exceeds $3.7 trillion. Compounding health, food, fuel, and economic crises, along with rising global interest rates, are further straining countries’ resources. A more ambitious development and climate finance system – comprised of aid, financing from multilateral development banks (MDBs), private capital, domestic resources, and philanthropic capital – is needed to make the sort of big bets that can achieve local, national, and global goals.

In recent years, compounding crises — the pandemic, war in Ukraine, debt distress and rising interest rates, food insecurity, and the impacts of climate change – have dramatically strained the current international development finance systems, underscoring their shortcomings.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Economic Recovery team is working with a broad alliance of nations, institutions, and individuals to strengthen and expand those systems. We:

  • Gather thought leaders to develop effective policy solutions,
  • Convene decisionmakers to galvanize action, and
  • Support advocacy movements to deliver key reforms.

We are also focused on building a global financial architecture that can mobilize substantially more, and better quality, financing. As these crises collide, creating daily consequences in each country, urgent action is needed.

But with innovative ideas, advocacy, and coalition-building, we can unlock the potential of these institutions and mechanisms to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Together, we can achieve equitable financing to progress toward the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement’s climate targets.

At The Rockefeller Foundation, we aim to foster a development finance system that channels funding at the scale, quality, and pace necessary to manage crises, achieve sustainable development the SDGs, and fight climate change.

  • Climate change requires a new financial architecture for us all.
    Mia Mottley
    Prime Minister of Barbados
  • Report

    Reimagining the Role of Multilateral Development Banks

    We must reimagine the decades-old global economic order and unlock the full potential of its institutions. Just as World War II established these organizations, this crisis now requires us to urgently reimagine them and put them to better use. This roadmap identifies actionable recommendations and short-term priorities that would allow the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to increase their lending powers without diminishing their financial standing or their credit ratings.
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