In the wake of a challenging year, the Bank of England (BoE) has found itself navigating a tumultuous economic landscape marked by significant upheavals. Following the release of the mini-budget in September 2022, the BoE was compelled to take proactive measures to stabilize the financial system. Th...

When the G20 pledges of $100 billion of SDR recycling materialize, there will no doubt be much self-congratulatory celebration. But the celebrations will be meaningless if the SDRs do not make their way to the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that need them. Will we be able to tell if the SD...

A new generation of satellites are about to make internet access more inclusive and resilient, but are governments ready to engage?

After more than a year of grappling with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many middle-income countries (MICs) will continue to experience health and economic dislocation for some time to come. While much of the global financial community’s attention has focused on supporting low-income...

The August 23 allocation of SDRs has given low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) breathing space on their balance sheets to confront the monetary and fiscal challenges of the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the next few weeks, at the UN General Assembly meetings and the annua...

Tackling global challenges effectively needs donors to rethink how the resources and expertise of diverse governmental actors are brought together. Bilateral donor governance urgently needs a conductor to coordinate a whole-of-government development policy and an orchestra of actors for its implemen...

The approval of a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the first effort to deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on a global level. The purpose of this note is to reframe the concept of SDRs and then to outline in broad the types...