If we could reinvent MDBs to respond to urgent development and climate needs and to benefit from 70 years of experience with the model, what would they look like? Countries should chart their own low-carbon climate resilient development and growth paths, with robust analytical support from MDBs that...

In this note we assess the potential short-term fiscal impact of these instruments. We look at three major natural disasters over the past two years and assess how much relief each country would have received if DSCs had been included in the totality of their external debt instruments.

The climate financial intermediary funds (FIFs) are one of the largest sources of grant and concessional finance for climate, especially for middle-income countries, but there are significant challenges at the systemic level and differing performance across FIFs. We recommend consolidating funds in ...

The World Bank is in the most visible position as it works on its evolution roadmap. But change is needed across the MDB system to enable these institutions to play a more effective and a much bigger role in helping the world meet these challenges. Together they hold about $500 billion in shareholde...

The assignment is clear. During this year’s Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, shareholders instructed the World Bank to develop a work program for its own evolution (“to identify gaps in the Bank’s current institutional and operational framework…”) by the end of the year. Secretary Yellen l...

We are living in a time when many countries face heightened debt vulnerabilities. There is no international bankruptcy mechanism for countries that default on their external obligations. The objective of the international financial architecture—historically overseen by the IMF and its shareholders— ...

Multilateral development bank policy-based guarantees (PBGs) have long been an instrument in search of demand. First introduced in 1999 at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to help governments access market borrowing at attractive rates, their track-record has been uneven, an...