This week’s General Assembly was a gloomy affair as UN officials strained to defend multilateralism in an increasingly polarized world with several major heads of state MIA.

The likelihood of capital increase for the World Bank’s non-concessional lending arm, the IBRD, appears to be climbing. At least an odd European government appears to be doing some preparatory work for it. But any negotiations around a capital increase may be complex. Large shareholders and borrowe...

G20 leaders recognise the pivotal role the multilateral development banks (MDBs) play in tackling global challenges and supporting sustainable development. Now they must more clearly define and carry forward the agenda with urgency and at scale.

The second of CGD's conversations with candidates for the presidency of the European Investment Bank was with Thomas Östros, who is currently Vice-President at the EIB, and has been in this role since 2020.

The first of CGD's conversations with candidates for the presidency of the European Investment Bank was with Margrethe Vestager. Margrethe is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition. She has had a long and illustrious political career, having become a...

It is standard fare for the G20 to issue lofty statements without any real muscle behind them, but the discordance in this year’s declaration is especially grating because explicitly and implicitly, the G20 have heaped exceptionally large burdens on the MDBs all in the context of what the leaders ac...

EU finance ministers will soon appoint a new president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Following two six-year terms, the incumbent, Werner Hoyer, will step down, and a new captain will take the helm of the world’s largest multilateral financial institution. The new president comes at a critic...

As new president Ajay Banga settles in to his position atop of the World Bank, his thoughts will be on institutional reform. Not least, the mandate he has been given to “evolve” the Bank to take on the mission of climate change. How do you redeploy 19,000 staff members in a new structure to get res...

On August 10, the White House submitted a $40.1 billion emergency supplemental request to Congress that includes $2.25 billion for the World Bank. The request for the Bank is well balanced: it would provide $1.25 billion to support “global challenges” (a more politically palatable term than climate ...

High on the list of objectives in the ongoing multilateral development bank (MDB) reform debate is to increase levels of private capital mobilization—something that has proved much harder to achieve than expected. Despite the lofty ambitions set out in the “billions to trillions” agenda, each dolla...