Innovative Finance / Global Economic Recovery

Global Economic Recovery

Current Initiative

Overview

In recent years, compounding crises — the pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, debt, food insecurity, and the impacts of climate change — have dramatically strained the international development and climate systems.

At the same time, developing countries are facing their worst debt crisis in history with almost half their budgets being spent on paying back their creditors.

Without much more additional funding, the needed investments in sustainable development and the green energy transition will not happen — and, inevitably, already-rising geopolitical tensions will only get worse.

The scale of external finance needed is huge: $1 trillion a year. Only with bold, transformational reforms of the global financial system will we be able to unlock funding and effectively fight poverty and climate change.

To meet this moment, The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Economic Recovery team is working with a broad alliance of governments, institutions, and individuals to drive political will towards global financial reform. This would unlock hundreds of billions more in financing, allowing countries to invest in addressing climate change and development.

Our Strategy

  • 1Build coalitions to modernize the global financial system so it provides debt relief, optimizes public resources, and ensures developing countries can access capital for both climate and development needs.
  • 2Invest in research and data-driven analysis that informs and inspires innovative and effective policies.
  • 3Build capacity within nonprofits and civil society organizations, especially in the Global South, to develop local reforms to respond to climate change and poverty.
  • 4Help strengthen institutions held back by obsolete rules and procedures so they can reimagine a global financial system that can better address the 21st-century needs of the most vulnerable.

Why It Matters

  •  
    $0BillionBillion

    is transferred out of developing economies to pay interest every year (confirm timeframe), marking the worst debt crisis in history

  •  
    0BillionBillion

    people currently live in economies that spend more on interest than on health and education

  •  
    $0TrillionTrillion

    per year is the estimated need for investing in sustainable development and the green energy transition

Featured Content

  • Reimagining the Role of Multilateral Development Banks
    To unlock the full potential of global institutions, we must reimagine our decades-old financial economic order.
  • World Bank Studies by Risk Control
    Two new studies published by the independent analytics firm Risk Control show that modern capital management practices would allow the World Bank to unlock up to $162 billion in additional lending for development and climate resilience without triggering a credit downgrade.

Impact Stories

  • Nurturing Climate Finance Leaders in Vulnerable Nations
    V20 Finance Fellows are being equipped with the tools and skills to help their countries prepare for the financial impacts of climate change.
  • Creating a Climate Revolution
    We are focused on confronting climate change, in part, by reimagining our global financing system to support the most vulnerable countries and communities – people like 60-year-old Kenyan farmer Julia Muroko.

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