MDB and IMF Reform at the Spring Meetings

April 2023

With this year's Spring Meetings in progress, all eyes are on the World Bank and the push for reform. Major shareholders have put forward plans to have the  World Bank take a more central role in the fight against climate change, but they'll need to navigate concerns about spreading the institution's focus and firepower too thin. As many developing countries face looming debt problems, the IMF has a key role to play in helping them respond.

This series of blog posts from experts across the Center for Global Development puts forward tangible policy “wins” for the World Bank or other IFIs that could emerge from the Spring Meetings.

More from the Series

Blog Post
Avoiding the Looming Disillusionment about IMF Climate Finance
Daouda Sembene
April 12, 2023
The new IMF climate finance mechanism faces multiple implementation challenges. It will take urgent actions from the institution and its major shareholders to avoid disillusionment among policymakers in climate-vulnerable developing countries.
Image of international monetary fund
Blog Post
What Does World Bank Success Look Like?
Nancy Lee
April 10, 2023
On the face of it, the case for a general capital increase for the World Bank should be obvious and urgent in our age of the polycrisis. It is a very efficient way to support an increase in development and climate lending by an order of magnitude. A $20 billion paid-in capital increase would support...
World_Bank
Blog Post
The Future of IDA: How Does Gender Equality Factor In?
Megan O'Donnell
April 10, 2023
Among IDA’s key substantive priorities is gender and development—which sits alongside human capital; fragility, conflict, and violence; jobs and economic transformation; and climate change as an overarching special theme. But despite IDA’s inclusion of gender equality as a theme beginning in 2016, i...
Image of diverse men and women
Blog Post
For the World Bank to Address Global Challenges, It Needs to Address Trade-Offs Head On
Ranil Dissanayake
April 07, 2023
World Bank reform will involve tackling a set of institutional challenges, from mobilizing more financing to taking on more risk. But it will also need to reckon with the more fundamental trade-offs between providing public goods and addressing poverty.
Stock photo of a scale, suggesting the need to balance two things
Blog Post
When It Comes to World Bank Reform, April Will Be Disappointing. But that Shouldn’t Be the End of the Story.
Scott Morris
April 05, 2023
Reform of the World Bank is in the eye of the beholder—not just how it’s going, but even what it is. With so many issues still to work out, next week's Spring Meetings are likely to be disappointing for those hoping for swift movement. But there's still room for ambition and optimism in the longer t...
Overview of World Bank Group headquarters. Photo: Franz Mahr / World Bank
Blog Post
The Road to a Better World Bank Starts with a Commitment to IDA
Clemence Landers
April 04, 2023
IDA has emerged as the largest financing arm of the World Bank Group in the last few years, and demand remains high. But IDA has not featured as prominently in the World Bank reform and roadmap conversations as IBRD. The Spring Meetings are an opportunity to change that.
Farmers harvest their crops near Kisumu, Kenya. Photo: Peter Kapuscinski / World Bank
Blog Post
The Spring Meetings Should Launch a Climate-Dedicated IBRD Capital Increase
Charles Kenny
April 03, 2023
The World Bank shouldn’t become a dedicated climate bank: that’s not what its client countries want, and the global development agenda (the D in IBRD and IDA) is still urgent. But, with additional finance, the Bank could play an important part in the global response to the climate challenge. That sh...
A small green shoot poking out of cracked and dried ground