Recommended
On the sidelines of this year's Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, CGD hosted several events with leading global development experts and policymakers, including World Bank candidate Ajay Banga, the presidents of IDB, EIB, and AIIB, and finance ministers from around the world. For questions, please reach out to [email protected].
Past Events
What Do Middle Income Countries Want from the MDBs? Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Jin Liqun in Conversation with Masood Ahmed
April 14, 11:00 am-noon ET | At CGD and Online
What do middle-income countries want from the multilateral development banks? And how can MDB’s balance responding to their needs with the growing climate imperative? Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), will discuss these important questions. Moderated by Masood Ahmed, CGD.
Investing for a Sustainable Future in an Age of Disorder and Uncertainty: A Conversation with the European Investment Bank
April 13, 11:00 am-noon ET | At CGD and Online
Werner Hoyer, EIB President; Maria Shaw-Barragan, Director of Lending for Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, Asia and Latin America, EIB Global; Masood Ahmed, CGD President; and Mikaela Gavas, Managing Director, CGD Europe, will discuss how the EIB and other multilateral development banks can stay on track with climate goals while managing crises and retaining focus on development.
JETPs and the Role of MDBs in Driving the Just Energy Transition
April 13, 9:00-10:00 am ET | At CGD and Online
On the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, CGD will host a panel discussion on critical success factors for a just energy transition and how MDBs can support the JETP (Just Energy Transition Partnerships) process. Featuring Juergen Zattler, Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany; Alice Carr, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero; Alexia Latortue, U.S. Department of the Treasury; and Jennifer Sara, WBG. Moderated by Annika Seiler, CGD.
Beyond the Dollars: Ensuring World Bank Evolution Means Evidence and Impact Revolution, Too
April 12, 3:00-4:30pm ET | At CGD and Online
This event will explore ways to make progress on both development priorities and cross-boundary global challenges. A high-level panel of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars will reflect on how decision-makers within the World Bank, country governments, and related institutions can incentivize and embrace the use of evidence and evaluation to ensure that resources are spent more effectively and to inform investment—and disinvestment—decisions. The panel discussion will be moderated by Amanda Glassman, CGD, and will draw from the final report from CGD’s Working Group on New Evidence Tools for Policy Impact and a recent CGD note on the need for a dual evidence agenda at the World Bank. Speakers include: Bård Vegar Solhjell, Director General, Norad; Dean Karlan, Chief Economist, USAID; and Arianna Legovini, Director of DIME, World Bank.
The Other Global Challenge: Pandemic Risks and the World Bank Roadmap
April 12, 10:30-11:30 am ET | At CGD and Online
How can the World Bank and its shareholder countries tackle pandemic risk with the same level of urgency as climate change and rising fragility and conflict? Amanda Glassman, CGD, will engage panelists in a conversation on how the World Bank’s evolution can respond to the ever-present global challenge of pandemic and epidemic risk. Panelists include: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Former President of Liberia and Co-Chair, Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response; Mamta Murthi, Acting Managing Director of Development Policy & Partnerships and Vice President for Human Development, World Bank; and Carolyn Reynolds, Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network. Senior Minister of Singapore and Co-Chair of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, will provide recorded opening remarks.
Book Talk in Memoriam of Benno Ndulu: Driving Digital Transformation
April 12, 10:00-11:30 am ET | At CGD and Online
Driving Digital Transformation, written in the name of former CGD non-resident fellow Benno Ndulu, describes the policy innovation, dialogue, and consensus building experiences and lessons learnt of working with seven developing countries to implement the Digital Economy Kit in order to kickstart a digital transformation. Two of the book's authors from Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, Stefan Dercon and Elizabeth Stuart, will give a presentation, along with comments from Shanta Devarajan, a professor from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Moderated by Charles Kenny, CGD.
Reimagining African Agency: Utilizing SDRs to Achieve African Priorities in Post COVID-19 Recovery
April 11, 12:30-2:00pm ET | At CGD and Online
This will be a conversation with Development Reimagined, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), and the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) about the efforts of African countries to address economic and health disparities in the wake of COVID-19 with special attention to special drawing rights (SDRs). The panel will explore how African countries are effectively implementing SDRs as well as hurdles in SDR disbursement to meet development goals. Mark Plant, CGD, will give a keynote address, followed by a panel discussion featuring: Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, ACET; Jason Braganza, AFRODAD; Hanan Morsy, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; and Gyude Moore, CGD. Moderated by Hannah Ryder, Development Reimagined.
Adapting Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to Global Challenges: Perspectives of African Leaders on Reform
April 10, 11:00-12:00pm ET | At CGD and Online
The shared challenges facing humanity, including climate change and pandemics, have only grown more pressing and existential. Given the financial firepower and expertise of the multilateral development banks (MDBs), many around the world are calling to reform the MDBs to address these global challenges which can and already have setback development outcomes. While the perspectives of African leaders are key in these conversations, voices from the continent have not gotten the attention they deserve. At the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, Esperança dos Santos Daves De Sousa, Minister of Finance, Angola; Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Republic of Ghana; Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Economy and Finance, Benin; Njuguna Ndung'u, Cabinet Secretary of National Treasury & Economic Planning, Republic of Kenya; and Jay Collins, Vice Chairman of Banking, Capital Markets, and Advisory, Citigroup, will share their perspectives on what they would like to see from the reform of the World Bank and MDBs.
Taxing Multinationals in Developing Countries: What Has Been Achieved and What Remains to Be Done?
April 6, 9:00-10:30 am ET | Online
While the 2021 Inclusive Framework agreement represents a major advance, further reforms will be needed both to finalize incomplete aspects of the agreement and to raise more domestic revenues in developing countries. This event dwells on these issues from a developing country perspective. Featuring Rasmi Ranjan Das, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, India; Manuela Francisco, Global Director, Macroeconomics and Investment, The World Bank Group; Ruud de Mooij, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund; Achim Pross, Deputy Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Presentation by Alexander Klemm, Division Chief, International Monetary Fund. Moderated by Sanjeev Gupta, CGD.
In Conversation: Ajay Banga and Afsaneh Beschloss on the Future of the World Bank
April 5, 10:00-10:45 am ET | At CGD and Online
Ajay Banga, candidate for President of the World Bank Group, will sit down with Afsaneh Beschloss, Founder and CEO of RockCreek and a CGD board member, to discuss the World Bank’s role in helping countries respond to pressing development and global challenges, including climate change, pandemics, and fragility.
A Conversation with IDB President Ilan Goldfajn
April 4, 3:00-4:00 pm ET | At CGD and Online
CGD will host a conversation with Ilan Golfajn, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), on the development and climate challenges confronting Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the role of the IDB in helping countries respond accordingly. He will be joined by CGD’s Amanda Glassman, Nancy Lee, and Liliana Rojas-Suarez.