In a recent piece with my colleague Mark Plant, I highlighted the financial pressures facing the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT). The surge in PRGT lending during the pandemic and the continued high level of lending since then provided essential support to low-income countries (LICs)...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a deep global recession as the virus rapidly spread and governments restricted movements. The economic shock was compounded by widespread uncertainty among businesses and concerns about the risks of increasing financial sector distress limiting access to credit.

On November 13th, 2022, the creation of a new Pandemic Fund, hosted by the World Bank, was announced. Its mandate is ambitious: to successfully prevent, prepare and respond to emerging pathogens. This will require true collective action, and implementation of decisive and ambitious policies in as ma...

At COP27 last November, the parties agreed to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. Governments also agreed to establish a “transitional committee” to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at C...

Ahead of the holiday break, US lawmakers reached agreement on a final FY2023 spending deal. After months of stalled negotiations, an omnibus appropriations package was far from guaranteed. But concerns about the consequences of a long-term continuing resolution—and the prospect of adding a major tas...

The past year was tumultuous for SDRs, but we’ve now managed to decipher the annual report and extract the must-knows to help you have a more enjoyable experience when you read it! The report covers the first year after the historic allocation of SDR 456 billion ($650 billion) in August 2021 and pro...

The increasingly global nature of development challenges—including climate change, security, and pandemic response—is laying bare the reality that global solutions are needed, and that the traditional model of development as resources flowing from “North” to “South” is not only insufficient for meet...