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With economic uncertainty, rising debt burdens, and a growing share of the world's poorest people living in fragile contexts, the stakes for the upcoming 4th Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) in Seville have never been higher.According to a recent OECD report, the gap between development financing needs and available resources could reach $6.4 trillion by 2030 if the global financing system isn't significantly overhauled.The conference in June present a pivotal opportunity to ignite reform. It's a vital forum where UN members, international institutions, businesses, and civil society come together at the highest level to rethink how we fund global development.In this episode, we dissect the key questions set to shape discussions at FfD4. How can we mobilise the trillions needed to meet the SDGs? How can the global financial architecture be made more inclusive and responsive? And what bold steps must be taken to unlock investment where it's needed most?Development finance experts share insights on multilateral development bank reform, the role of concessional finance, and opportunities to build a more sustainable, equitable future. GuestsSara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI GlobalMónica Colomer, Ambassador at Large for Financing for Development, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Spain Alvaro Lario, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)Annalisa Prizzon, Principal Research Fellow, ODI Global Related resourcesDevelopment finance needs major overhaul to achieve global goals (OECD report)Financing development at a crossroads: What's at stake and what reforms are needed? (Development Policy Review)ODI Global at the Spring Meetings (resources hub)Are Southern-led MDBs the future of development finance? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)MDB Insights Spring Meetings 2025 (Newsletter, ODI Global)Unlocking the potential of blended concessional finance: making aid work harder (Event video, ODI Global)Maximising operational effectiveness and impact: key priorities for multilateral development banks (Report, ODI Global)
Development finance is no longer just about aid. It's about power, priorities, and who gets to decide.For decades, institutions like the World Bank and IMF have set the agenda, with high-income countries holding the reins. But a shift is underway. Southern-led multilateral development banks (MDBs) – where borrowing nations are also the majority shareholders – are rewriting the rules.These banks, like CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) and the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) Group, bring something different to the table: speed, flexibility, and a laser focus on local needs. But they also face hurdles: higher borrowing costs, limited global visibility, and the challenge of financing a just climate transition in economies still grappling with poverty.With the Spring Meetings taking place later this month, this episode dives into the rise of these institutions. Are they the future of development finance? Can they complement – or even challenge – traditional MDBs? And what reforms are needed to unlock their full potential?GuestsSara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI GlobalAlejandra Botero, Director of Strategy and Development, CAFChris Humphrey, Senior Research Associate, ODI GlobalAdmassu Tadesse, Group President and Managing Director, TDB GroupRelated resourcesODI Global resources on multilateral development banksSouthern-led multilateral channels for climate finance (Working paper, ODI Global)What makes an MDB an MDB? Southern-led multilateral banks and the sovereign debt crisis (Working paper, ODI Global)Climate-smart reform of multilateral development banks: priorities for the G20 (Policy brief, ODI Global)Investing for resilience: a panel discussion with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun (Event video, ODI Global)What do borrowing countries think of MDB reform? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)
Send us a text◆ Trump orders review of US involvement in multilateral development banks ◆ What's driving Reverse Yankee issuance? ◆ Deutsche Bank sparks new controversy in AT1 capitalAmong many of the executive orders Donald Trump has signed since he became US president for the second time was one which ordered a review of the country's involvement in international organisations. That will include the multilateral development banks, in which it is often the biggest shareholder and which are big bond issuers.We investigate how seriously the MDBs and the bond market should take the review as there is evidence of support for the sector in Trump's previous stint in the White House but also seemingly a revitalised sense of isolationsim and nationalism this time around. US influence was prevalent in the European investment grade corporate bond market this week too. IBM was among a trio of US issuers pricing Reverse Yankee bonds. We look into what is driving the supply and what deals are to come.Finally, we talked about whether Deutsche Bank's hint that it would not call two of its dollar additional tier one deals this year would rile investors at a time when the market for the product is red hot.
Welcome to the Hughes Hubbard Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations Practice Group's podcast, All Things Investigation. This week, we will feature five lawyers from HHR to introduce the firm's always popular and annual FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. In this second podcast of the 5-part series, host Tom Fox is joined by Jiaxing Hao on the significance and enforcement actions of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) like the World Bank and Inter-American Development Banks in combating corruption. They examine key trends from 2024, including a renewed focus on complex corruption cases. Jiaxing emphasizes the importance of compliance, particularly in accurately documenting and reporting all transactions, as MDBs consider even internships, employment contracts, and additional personnel as potential bribery risks. The conversation highlights the MDBs' lower burden of proof, making it critical for compliance professionals to be vigilant in their anti-corruption efforts. Key highlights: Understanding Multilateral Development Banks Key Trends in MDB Enforcement Actions Compliance Lessons for Corporations Fraudulent Practices in Bid Documents Burden of Proof in MDB Investigations Resources: Hughes Hubbard & Reed website 2024 Fall FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert Jiaxing Hao
The interplay of public and private financing.In another special episode of The Energy Gang from COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ed Crooks explores the challenges and opportunities of mobilizing climate finance to support the energy transition in emerging markets. With a focus on bridging the gap between ambition and action, this episode explores the nuances of climate finance, the critical role of project preparation, and the growing need for equity investment to unlock sustainable development.As the "Finance COP", COP29 is under pressure to deliver concrete outcomes on climate finance. This episode highlights the urgent need for innovative funding solutions, greater public-private collaboration, and systemic reforms to ensure that financing reaches the countries and projects that need it most.Raquel Moses of the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator emphasizes the importance of disaggregating climate finance into grants, equity, concessionary loans, and other forms of capital. She explains why clarity on funding types is critical to addressing bottlenecks in project development, particularly in the Caribbean and other emerging markets.Ben Attia of Allied Climate Partners highlights the shortage of bankable projects in emerging markets and explains how his organization deploys philanthropic capital to de-risk early-stage infrastructure projects. By addressing first-loss capital and preparing projects for commercial investment, ACP helps bridge the gap between available funding and viable projects.Raquel and Ben argue that addressing systemic issues, including the lack of early-stage equity investment, the complexity of aggregating small projects, and the risks associated with currency fluctuations in emerging markets are essential to unlocking the $1 trillion in annual climate finance needed to meet global goals.In the final part of this episode, we talk to Jang Ping Thia of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to discuss how MDBs can support the energy transition in rapidly growing regions like Asia. He emphasizes the importance of pairing climate goals with economic development to align incentives and drive participation from the Global South.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
With the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings wrapped up, all eyes are now turning to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, to be held next month in Baku, Azerbaijan. So how do multilateral development banks stack up? Are their policies and programs enough to address climate shocks? Can and should they take on more risk? And is the money that MDBs have promised actually getting to where it needs to go? To explore these questions and more, Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger speaks to Pepukaye Bardouille, director of the Bridgetown Initiative and special adviser on climate change to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley; and Warren Evans, who has a long history of working on climate issues at multilateral development banks.
In this episode, I dive into everything you need to know about the cruise industry's Wave Season and why it's the best time to book your next adventure! Plus, I'm sharing a personal milestone that's been a big part of my journey this year. And don't miss the return of your favorite segment, "Hey Steve," where I answer all your travel questions.Ready to plan your trip? Reach out to me anytime at scohen@curatedtravelcollection.com, and let's make your dream vacation a reality!https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-21-wave-season-is-here-get-ready-to-cruise-with-magical-destinations-by-steve--62430093
In April, a group of multilateral development banks signed an agreement to work more closely together, known as a viewpoint note, which set a series of goals, including scaling up their financing capacity, and delivering more on climate. Earlier this week, at the U.N. General Assembly, the heads of MDBs sat down with U.N. leaders to identify how they could make more progress to deliver those goals. Devex heard from Ilan Goldfajn, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, about the steps taken so far. Goldfajn said there had been considerable progress in unifying the goals of the MDBs with the Group of 20 major economies and with U.N. agencies. MDBs have increased lending capacity by $400 billion over the next 10 years, mostly through reforms but partly due to closer working, Goldfajn explained. He added that last year, the banks had lent a quarter more on climate and doubled the amount of finance mobilized, compared to 2022. He also highlighted several projects where IDB had worked together with the World Bank and the EIB. Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sat down with Goldfajn for a special episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters
In today's episode, we're joined by Hans Peter Lankes, Managing Director of the think tank ODI, as well as Kathrin Muehlbronner from Moody's Ratings to discuss the effectiveness of recent reform proposals in increasing the lending capacity of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and what they think is needed for MDBs to better address global challenges like climate change, poverty, and inequality.Speakers: Hans Peter Lankes, Managing Director of ODI; Kathrin Muehlbronner, Senior Vice President at Moody's RatingsHost: Sarah Carlson, Senior Vice President at Moody's Ratings
To discuss the growing prominence of CPRI, Harry McIndoe and Sean Austin, Directors at BPL, joined Brian Canup in Trade Finance Talks to break down the market and discuss its utilisation by development finance institutions (DFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs). Read the article here: https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/posts/podcast-s2-e17-bpl-on-the-role-of-dfis-and-cpri-across-emerging-markets/
Episode 16: Join me as I take you on a magical two-day trip to Disneyland! In this episode, I dive into the Happiest Haunt Tour, answer your questions about the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, and share some insider tips for navigating Magic Kingdom Park. Plus, I'm excited to announce the premiere of my other podcast, Ears2Ears, where Mickey F. and I share stories and expert tips for creating unforgettable Disney experiences.Planning your next adventure? Reach out to me at scohen@curatedtravelcollection.com.
To discuss the growing prominence of CPRI, Harry McIndoe and Sean Austin, Directors at BPL, joined Brian Canup in Trade Finance Talks to break down the market and discuss its utilisation by development finance institutions (DFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs). https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/posts/podcast-s2-e19-bpl-role-dfis-cpri-across-emerging-markets/
At the 56th Annual FCI Meeting in Seoul, Deepesh Patel, Editorial Director at Trade Finance Global, was joined on Trade Finance Talks by Steven Beck, Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance, Asian Development Bank to discuss the role of MDBs in the facilitation of trade and supply chain finance. Read the article here: https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/posts/podcast-s2-e18-steven-beck-on-the-development-and-role-of-mdbs-in-global-trade/
Episode 11: Hodge Podge of topics. We will talk about visiting Virgin River, Travel Insurance, Disney, Universal and why you should use me!
Wurzel, Steffen www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9
Das Geschlecht ist jetzt nach Gutdünken frei wählbar! Die Ampel-Fraktionen haben am 12.04.2024 das sogenannte „Selbstbestimmungsgesetz“ im Deutschen Bundestag beschlossen. 374 Abgeordnete stimmten dafür, 251 dagegen, 11 MdBs enthielten sich. Das bedeutet, dass ab dem 1. November 2024 jeder sein Geschlecht alle 12 Monate per Sprechakt ändern kann. Zu diesen neuen Entwicklungen bemerkt Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, dass „diese Zeiten nur noch Gaga sind!“ In dieser Folge von „Achtung, Reichelt!“ erklärt Gloria wohin ihrer Meinung nach dieser moderne „Nihilismus“ führt und warum dies unter Umständen „eine Vorbereitung auf einen Krieg“ sein könnte. Neugierig? Dann schalten Sie in diese Folge.
Last week, we launched Roots of Change, a Devex series on locally led development, which explores how the localization agenda can be elevated from rhetoric to reality. We have been following the discussions around localization for the past couple of years and the progress made toward empowering local communities in shaping global development initiatives. As part of the series, we published an article that outlines five key takeaways we learned about the current state of the debate based on our coverage. We highlight that while progress is slow, change is inevitable. At the Inter-American Development Bank, major developments are underway. From changing how they operate to identifying new metrics of success, we dig into how the financial institution plans to become a better partner in development as it urges other MDBs to undergo reform as well. We also touch upon an interactive article we published on the U.S. Agency for International Development's spending plan for the upcoming months. Find out how the agency is planning to distribute $25.6 billion, including the sectors and countries targeted. In the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Nasra Ismail, U.S. enterprise executive director at Alight, and Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger to discuss the global development stories above. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters
Do you like to travel to a warm destination? In this episode we will explore warm destinations and island hopping as well. I mention a couple of teasers coming soon and you do not want to miss hearing about the new adventures. You can subscribe to my weekly email newsletter at scohen@curatedtravelcollection.com.
Episode 4 of my podcast with a special guest, me. I talk about being flexible while traveling. I also talk about a cruising to Alaska this summer. It is not to late.
◆ The first of a new asset class in SSA debt ◆ Full inspection of AfDB's landmark deal ◆ A power shift in the European CLO marketYears in the making, the first publicly sold hybrid deal from a multilateral development bank arrived this week. The African Development Bank's latest instrument heralds not just the dawn of a new product in the bond market but, as other MDBs bring their own deals, will lead to an increase in supranational bond issuance overall and, most importantly, more development dollars for lower income countries.We take a look this week at how this deal came to fruition, who bought it and why, and what will happen next as this nascent asset class takes its first steps.Meanwhile, Victoria Thiele, co-host of our sister podcast dedicated to securitization, called Another Fine Mezz, helped us examine how growing demand for equity tranches in European CLOs means the buyers of their triple-A tranches no longer have it all their own way.
Welcome to Magical Destinations By Steve or MDBS the podcast that takes you on a journey around the world without ever leaving the comfort of your headphones. I'm your host, Steve Cohen and I'm thrilled to be your guide through the exciting realms of travel, culture, and exploration.
The Paris Climate Agreement, established at COP 21 in 2015, calls for leaders and institutions across society to work towards reducing their carbon emissions with the aim of reaching net zero by 2050. Multilateral development banks, or MDBs, which have a critical role to play in the climate finance landscape, are in the process of figuring out what it means to deliver on their commitment to “Paris alignment”. “Delivery means really, for us, implementing what we have committed to do and working with the countries in which we invest in order to accompany them in this green transition,” said Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the latest episode of the Climate + podcast. EBRD aims for 50% of its investments to be in support of the green transition by 2025, she added. Renaud-Basso joined Devex senior reporter Adva Saldinger to delve deeper into EBRD's climate priorities, the bank's approach and timeline for phasing out investments in fossil fuels, what MDBs can do to mobilize more private capital for climate investments, and how MDBs can work better together to support countries with their climate goals. This podcast episode was recorded with a live online audience as part of Devex's wider Climate + event programming at COP 28. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, check out the link.
Strengthening MDBs The Triple Agenda by Overseas Development Institute
The question of how multilateral development banks (MDBs) must transform themselves to address today's most pressing global challenges will again be under the spotlight at next week's World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Marrakech.Business as usual will no longer do. In this episode – produced in collaboration with the Center for Global Development – we ask what the countries these banks were set up to serve think about how MDBs should adapt and evolve. After all, their demands and preferences should shape the lending volumes, strategies and operations of MDBs.But the reality is we know little about these preferences, what client countries value about MDBs, and what they think the banks' weaknesses are – potentially curbing their demand for assistance in the medium to long term.SpeakersSara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODIMasood Ahmed, President of the Center for Global DevelopmentAnnalisa Prizzon, Principal Research Fellow, ODIMavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Executive Vice President of the African Center for Economic TransformationAmadou Hott, Special Envoy for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa, AfDB and former Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation of SenegalIyabo Masha, Director and Head of Secretariat, G24Related resourcesODI at the Annual MeetingsMDBs can drive transformative change – now the G20 must inject urgency and sustain its supportCountry perspectives on multilateral development banks: a survey analysisA fair share of climate finance? An appraisal of past performance, future pledges and prospective contributorsMDB Reform Accelerator (Center for Global Development) Interactive African Transformation Index (African Center for Economic Transformation)
Tamar Gutner, associate professor of international affairs at American University's School of International Service, leads the conversation on the international financial architecture. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Welcome to today's discussion of the Fall 2023 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach at CFR. Thank you for joining us. Today's discussion is on the record and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/academic if you would like to share them with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have Tamar Gutner with us to discuss the international financial architecture. Dr. Gutner is an associate professor at American University's School of International Service, and expert on the performance of international organizations and their roles in global governance. In 2019, she held a CFR Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars at the International Monetary Fund's Independent Evaluation Office. She is the author of International Organizations in World Politics, published by CQ Press; and Banking on the Environment: Multilateral Development Banks and Their Environmental Performance in Central and Eastern Europe, published by MIT Press. And she recently completed a book manuscript on the birth and design of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and its role in the landscape of development banks. So, Dr. Gutner, thank you very much for being with us today. I thought we could begin by having you outline for us the various change-related proposals and activities facing the World Bank, other multilateral development banks, and the International Monetary Fund. Just a small question, but—(laughter)—over to you. GUTNER: Thank you. Thank you, Irina, for introducing me, and thank you for having me as part of this seminar. I think these seminars are just a fantastic way for scholars, professors, students, and others to engage with these important issues, and I'm really excited to see so many people from around the world and professors and students and I see some colleagues in the audience. So I'm really looking forward to engaging with all of you. Right, so this is a critical time for the IMF and the World Bank and other development banks because their importance has been heightened by the need for them to respond to the various crises and challenges that we're facing now. Many of these, as you know, are quite difficult to solve, like climate change. And the world is also dealing with the ongoing economic and social and health repercussions from the pandemic, the repercussions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine including food insecurity. And we're also living in a time when a lot more countries are at high risk of debt distress, and it's a time when it's becoming clear that progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals are stalling. We also have major geopolitical tensions, which is an issue as well. So the IMF and the World Bank are leading international organizations in this scenario today. The IMF has been called the center of the global financial safety net. And the World Bank, meanwhile, is the leading multilateral source of climate finance, and is also playing a huge role in responding to various development challenges that impact its borrowing countries. And also, the regional development banks are addressing these issues as well. So for people who support multilateralism, there's widespread agreement that no one state or actor can solve any of these cross-border issues on their own. And that means we're living in a time when cooperation and multilateral action is absolutely essential, and these people agree we need more to be done to address these issues. But we're also living in a time when many states have inward-looking politics, where there's rising nationalism and populism. And this has produced people and leaders who either don't see the value of international organizations (IOs) like the World Bank and IMF or they see them as contrary to national interests. The IOs themselves—the international organizations themselves—also struggle with relevance sometimes and mixed performance sometimes. And the IMF and World Bank constantly face criticism. They're always being criticized. But I think one important thing to remember is that there's no consensus among the critics. There are always people who want them to do more. There are people who want them to be abolished. So when you're exploring the kind of critiques of these organizations it's important to keep that in mind, just they're coming from different actors and they have different thoughts. And, meanwhile, these institutions themselves, they have—it's tricky for them because they have a tough job. They have to be responsive to their member-state shareholders, who don't always agree with each other. They have to try to be responsive to other stakeholders, for example civil society actors; they don't always agree with each other or with their member states. And so these institutions are constantly being pulled in different directions and they have to navigate that. To their credit, they do try to adapt and adjust, not always effectively. And there's also variation in what they've done well and haven't done well. But it's precisely at this time today with these international crises that the Bank and the Fund and the other MDBs—multilateral development banks—have to try to do better. And what I want to do is offer you a brief overview of some of their efforts to do so and some of the challenges that face these efforts. So I'll begin with the World Bank, which is in the midst of a process to figure out how to update its mission, its vision, its strategy, and its operating model. And this is a process that has been driven by shareholders, including the G20 members, and lots of other consultations. Last fall—well, first of all, I want to say there are a number of proposals on the table on how to reform the World Bank and other MDBs, and they have in common calling for these institutions to do a lot more to address climate change and other global public goods. And some of them call for more effort to better engage with private capital and to rethink how these institutions, which are in part banking institutions, how they can maximize the impact of their capital. So last fall the World Bank embarked on what's been called an evolution roadmap to think through ideas for what should be done. This came out late last year amid calls for the Bank to be bigger and better. And this initiative was launched by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a year ago, and she led an effort with other non-borrowing and borrowing countries to call for the whole multilateral development bank system to evolve. As she put it, the world has changed and we need these vital institutions to change along with it. So the idea underlying all of these proposals is for MDBs to be more innovative and efficient. India made MDB evolution a priority in its presidency of the G20 this year, and there have been different expert panels that have also called for radically reformed and strengthened multilateral development banks. So what's interesting for this audience is this evolution roadmap process will eventually turn into the World Bank's strategy, its corporate strategy, and the latest version of it will be discussed next week at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Marrakesh. So if you're interested in following that, keep your eyes on the news. And the latest version is seeking approval for measures that will allow the World Bank to boost its lending by $100 billion. So this—the document circulating now for the development—the Joint Ministerial Committee of the World Bank and IMF—and we'll see what happens with it. And I'm happy to talk more about the document itself in the Q&A. These efforts to reform the World Bank are also impacting other regional development banks. So, for example, the Asian Development Bank recently announced it, too, will lend an additional $100 billion over the next ten years by relaxing some of its risk rules for its banking, how it manages its assets, without jeopardizing its triple-A credit rating. The IMF also has been trying to change and adapt in recent years. It's not directly part of this evolution framework that's focusing on MDBs, but the IMF has really turned attention to climate change and also to gender and inequality. And it's essentially pushing forward a kind of a slow change in thinking where economists, and finance ministers, and central bank leaders have realized that these issues are essential to macroeconomic stability. So climate change has become a more visible focus of the IMF's work, its work in surveillance, its capacity development activities, and its general work with countries. Its first strategy for mainstreaming gender was adopted in July 2022. And, like the World Bank, it has also created a number of mechanisms to respond to the pandemic. So it has a new resilience and sustainability trust. And the goal of it is to help low-income member states to address climate change and issues like pandemic preparedness. And it also has a new food shock window to offer emergency financing for countries facing food insecurity as a result of everything going on today. So this is—it's interesting to watch both of these institutions. The IMF typically has a harder time changing because it's a more rigid, set in its ways organization. But it, too—it's not your grandmother's IMF anymore. But all of these efforts are going to face their own sets of challenges. And I want to briefly highlight a few of them before we have our Q&A. So in the World Bank's roadmap, which is also being called a new playbook, the question is: Is it a zero-sum game to balance more focus on global public goods like climate change with individual countries' own development priorities? And there are many people who say, no problem. Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, when talking about this balancing issue, she said: Well, we can chew gum and walk at the same time. But these goals may have areas of overlap, where a country's own development issues do coincide with these global public goods, but there may be areas where they do not. And that's something that has to be worked out. There's also some criticism in civil society and other actors about asking the multilateral banks to do much more to engage with the private sector. First of all, this idea has been around for a while, this idea of turning billions and trillions, for example, was part of the 2015 UN Financing for Development Conference. And it hasn't really come through. So it's a difficult issue to do. There's going to be more work on it. But some organizations actually are concerned about potential negative effects of prioritizing incentives for private finance to provide co-financing to development efforts, because private sector goals are not always the same as public goals, right? So there's some areas of tension. And finally, I just want to flag that all of these organizations are calling for more collaboration. Collaboration is almost the magic wand that will help all these efforts to work out better. And, in fact, if you look at the IMF's new annual report, which was just published, it lists on its front page “committed to collaboration.” But, in fact, it's not that easy for these organizations to collaborate. And I'm happy to break that down a little bit more. And so this great emphasis on something that can be difficult will be something that these organizations have to grapple with. I'm happy to talk about more of the issues in our Q&A, but I think I should stop here and open it up to questions or comments. FASKIANOS: Thank you, Tammi. That was fantastic. So we're going to go to all of you for your questions. (Gives queuing instructions.) OK, so I'm going to take the first question from Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome. Q: Thank you. Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome. I'm a professor of political science at Brooklyn College. And I'm just wondering about this financial architecture that is much criticized, as you said. And I'm wondering the extent to which the criticism informs new decisions that are taken. So the criticisms about people who say the organization should be abolished is coming from the Global South, where there's been feeling since the 1970s that these organizations are not sufficiently sympathetic or understanding of the challenges faced by the countries that had unsustainable debt, and are still in a deeper state of unsustainable debt today. So how is the global architecture on these—in these organizations dealing with these challenges? I heard for the first time, like, in the last five years—Lagarde, I think it was—that said, oh, we made mistakes in some of the advice that we were giving. So who pays for those mistakes? People's lives are damaged, economies are wrecked. And you know, so what are the—what's the good of these changes, really? GUTNER: Yeah, thank you so much for that question, because that's a really good reflection on some of the harsh criticism that these institutions face. And I also would not be someone who says they do everything right, because they don't. But it has been interesting to watch some of the ways that they've evolved. So, for example, they do interact much more with civil society than they used to. I mean, it used to be in the old days when the IMF and World Bank had their annual meetings, civil society actors would protest outside on the street in Washington, DC. And I would tell my students, feel free to go down there but please maybe try not to get arrested, you know? So there were—there were very large protests. Now, when they have the annual meeting, civil society actors are in—are part of it. They're engaged in seminars. They're engaged in discussion. The institutions have strengthened some of their accountability measures, although I could argue some of them are also still weak. But there have been changes. So for example, the IMF now addresses and thinks about social protection, which it didn't used to do, and social safety nets, which it didn't used to do in the past. So you can argue that these changes aren't enough, and they're too late, and it's still harmful. But I think there is evidence that they do try to evolve and adapt, maybe not perfectly. And also, it's really difficult to change a huge institution. It's like turning a large ship. You know, it doesn't happen quickly. But the narrative today is different from the past. I mean, there is—there is more focus on climate change, for example. Which you can argue some countries, it's not really their priority. But even that's changing. More countries, more developing countries, are realizing that issues of climate change are related to them, whether it's through natural disasters, you know, hurricanes, floods, mud—you know, all of this. So I think it's—I think this criticism is still out there. And it exists. The institutions are imperfect. But they do—they do slowly try to adjust and adapt. And if you dig into it, if you go into detail, you'll find that they do a better job in some issues than others, in some countries than others, in some periods of time than others. So as a scholar I would argue that you—it's hard to make a blanket statement about them without kind of unpacking, you know, specific cases and over time. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next written question from Jon-Paul Maddaloni, a military professor at the U.S. Naval War College: For the World Bank, what is the definition of creditworthy? Is this a debt-to-GDP ratio? Is there a standard here that may be part of the developing world grievance against the World Bank? GUTNER: So there are complex ways of assessing that. But basically, one of the major ones is to decide if a country is eligible for IBRD loans, which are International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the main part of the World Bank, which are loans that have to be repaid. And if a country is relatively less creditworthy or poor countries can access grants, or no-interest loans, or concessional funding from the World Bank's arm that's called IDA, the International Development Association—or, Agency. (Laughs.) I just—I just call it IDA. So if you're—if you're able to access IDA funding, you're relatively less creditworthy. The World Bank also has other facilities to offer—both the bank and also the IMF—capacity development, which is just money given for technical assistance. And those are the different categories for the World Bank. So countries can change category. So if a country becomes more economically stronger, it can graduate from IDA concessional financing. If it becomes weaker, it can access that financing. And there are some countries which can get a blend. In other words, they're creditworthy enough to be able to take some amount of loans, but not enough so that all of their financing can be a loan form. So these are some of the ways that the World Bank responds to different categories of creditworthiness. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. I'm going to take the next question from Fordham's International Political Economy and Development Program. They have a raised hand. If you can just say who you are. (Laughter.) Q: Thank you for being with us today. I'm Genevieve, part of the Fordham IPED Program. My question is, what are some specific examples of how a country's national political landscape and private interests cause these setbacks for cross-sectoral collaboration in these development banking efforts? And how do these large banking institutions work around corruption, for example? GUTNER: I'm sorry. Can you repeat the first part about collaboration—cross-sectoral collaboration? Q: Yeah. What are some specific examples of how a country's national political landscape and private interests cause setbacks for cross-sectoral collaboration for these development banks? And then we could take corruption as an example. GUTNER: So I'm not 100 percent sure what you mean by the—by the cross-sectoral collaboration. When I'm focusing on collaboration, or when the narrative is focusing on collaboration, it's really focusing more on collaboration between, for example, the World Bank and IMF. How do they collaborate? And the answer to that is, they haven't collaborated well for almost eighty years. But that's not—what I think you're asking is, what happens between these institutions and the national level? Well, one issue—the issue of corruption has become much more widely discussed in both the World Bank and the IMF. In the past, it was seen as a domestic political issue, which is really outside their articles of agreement. They're not supposed to get involved in these domestic political issues. But there's much more awareness today that corruption—for example, in the IMF—corruption impacts a government's health—the fiscal health, their ability to have money to spend on development. And the same is true for the World Bank. So there's much more attention on these issues. The institutions still have to navigate carefully so that they don't look like they're getting involved in politics, even though they can't really avoid it. But so corruption is much higher on the priority list. And it can impact a country's ability to get funding from either institutions. So from the World Bank, and they have—they have lists of companies they won't work with in procurement, for example, who are barred from engaging in procurement. And it's part of discussions. It shows up in the partnership—the framework documents that both countries produce for individual countries. So a kind of a—this is a long way to say, it's on the radar and it matters. But a lot of the collaboration issues are related to how the institutions work with each other. But also in country, I should add, that in some countries the donors collaborate on the ground. So they meet together and they try to make sure they're not overlapping. There's—it doesn't always work very well. You know, in some cases it works better than others. But for the institutions to collaborate more with each other, they have faced many challenges in doing that. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Joshua McKeown, associate provost and director of the international education at State University of New York at Oswego: For context, how much lending does the World Bank do in comparison with regional development banks? GUTNER: Well, I guess it depends. I don't have all that data at my fingertips, but the World Bank in the last—in—let's see, I do have the World Bank data at my fingertips. Let me just pull it up. See where I had it. The World Bank in its current annual report, the IBRD committed $38 and a half billion in 2023. IDA committed $34 billion. The regional banks are much smaller, so the World Bank tends to be the largest. But there's also a lot of variation across the regional banks as well. Now it's important to say that they will often cofinance projects with each other. So the regional banks will engage with the World Bank, and they'll have shared projects, and they'll work together. There are times where they also will compete with each other on occasion. They might both be interested in funding an airport—building an airport somewhere. And one of them may offer more attractive terms than the other. But the competition is not kind of a serious problem, because basically wherever you look in the world, there's almost an infinite demand for infrastructure finance. You know, show me a city that doesn't need a new metro, or the roads repaired, right? So there's a lot of demand out there for these banks to be able to do what they do. And but that has to be tempered with the, on the other side, how much debt can an individual country take on? And that's where we're seeing more serious problems today. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Samia Abdulle from Professor Fazal's class. And she is at the University of Minnesota: How has COVID-19 renewed the debate about the World Bank's role in international development? GUTNER: That's a great question, because when it comes to crisis, member states turn to these institutions right away. And this is a little separate from your question, but before the global financial crisis, for example, the IMF and the World Bank had seen their demand for their services drop dramatically. There were questions about the legitimacy of the IMF. Then the global financial crisis hit and, boom, they were kind of the go-to organizations to help respond to these issues. So the World Bank and the IMF both responded pretty rapidly to the pandemic. And they each came up with new facilities, they got money out the door quickly, they relaxed some of their conditions. So they both had a kind of a robust response. Now, there are people who are saying, well, it was not enough. It should have been more. But, you know, they did a lot. And in an emergency situation, also, you have to remember, they all had to work at home as well. So everybody was working at home. Nobody could travel, but yet they got a lot of money out the door quickly, in different kinds of ways. And I think what we're going to have to revisit down the road is, did any of that money disappear? You know, where—was there accountability for all this money, because it was moved out the door so quickly. And the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, would say: Just save your receipts. (Laughs.) Just save your receipts. But that's going to be something to see, what happened with this money, where did it actually go, how did accountability work? But the World Bank alone got $30 billion—it dispersed $30 billion in fifteen months at the beginning of the pandemic in emergency support. So they really did step up. And whether it was enough or not is a matter of opinion. But they moved—they did move quickly. And I should just add, since you asked about—I just want to add one thing. The World Bank was involved in getting people access to vaccines, helping weak health infrastructures in countries, and all kinds of issues related to the pandemic. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. So I'm going to take the next written question from Yiagadeesen Samy, who's the director of the School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Canada: You already covered the AIIB in your opening remarks, and we will be circulating this transcript in the video later, but let's look at the second part of the question. Can you comment a little bit on whether the proposed changes to MDBs are a reaction to China's growing influence? And if so, what your views are about the changing geopolitical economic dynamics? GUTNER: It's so great people are asking these simple questions. (Laughs.) FASKIANOS: I know! GUTNER: Yes. FASKIANOS: Keeping you on your toes! (Laughs.) GUTNER: Yes. So let me preface by saying this: China has different strategies in development banking. On one side, you have the AIIB, for example. On the other side, the Belt and Road Initiative. The AIIB is not—in my research, it's cut from the same cloth as other development banks. It's not a threat. It's a part of the landscape of development banks. It's part of the community. It was designed by an international group of experts. In fact, the person who wrote the AIIB's articles of agreement was an American. And the person who designed the AIIB's environmental and social framework was an American. So it was a—it was a real international effort. And in fact, the World Bank helped the AIIB get set up. So the World Bank volunteered staff and gave the AIIB advice on things like vacation policy and office furniture. This is the Beijing office of the World Bank. And the World Bank even ran the AIIB treasury at the beginning, and it cofinanced projects. So the AIIB is cut from the same cloth as development banks. Now, it does have some differences. It's has—it's much smaller. It has a staff under four hundred. The World Bank is ten thousand, for example. And so there are some people who think it might have spurred the World Bank to pay more attention to doing more on infrastructure, which it had moved away from a little bit because that's the AIIB's focus. But the Belt and Road is something different. It's a bilateral initiative. It's an umbrella for Chinese financial institutions to lend money for infrastructure. It's not actually an organization. It's just an umbrella term. And there are differences, because the banks lending under the Belt and Road, Chinese institutions, they don't follow global norms on environmental and social framework, on safeguards. They're not transparent. We can't—we don't know how the loan is structured. They don't report the lending numbers to the Paris Club, for example. So there's a real difference between China's strategy in the AIIB and China's strategy in the Belt and Road, which reflects the different natures. There's not one Chinese strategy. So I think, in a way, the existing development banks help the AIIB more, and their staff help the AIIB more. The Belt and Road is a separate thing. But what I think is going to be interesting is to see if the borders, the boundaries between what is done following global norms, and rules, and procedures, if there's any kind of crossover with what's inside those borders and what's outside those borders. So for example, the AIIB is hosting a facility to help countries better design infrastructure projects that might be undertaken under Belt and Road. And so we just have to keep an eye on that. But it's not—it's not a bleak or black and white picture, the way some people describe it. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. A good follow up question from Steven Shinkel, who's the military professor of national security affairs at U.S. Naval War College: Can you compare the relative use of concessional loans between the World Bank and China? What about loan forgiveness, especially in regions such as Africa and South America? GUTNER: Right. So most of the Chinese lending under Belt and Road is not concessional. Most of it is not concessional. And often interest rates are higher than a comparative loan, even from the IBRD, even non-concessional lending. So they will often charge higher interest rates, but they will have less conditionality. So a country trying to decide who to take a loan from will have to weigh that. Do we want a lower interest rate loan from the World Bank that might have more policy conditionality, we might have to adjust our policy, we might have to think about environmental impacts more? Or do we want a slightly more expensive loan from a Chinese lending institution, but it doesn't have any strings attached? So that's kind of the part of the decision-making that borrowers have to go through. On debt—the second part was on, I'm sorry, the question disappeared. On debt? FASKIANOS: Oh, sorry. Yes, the second question is: What about loan forgiveness, especially in regions such as Africa and South America? GUTNER: Well, that's something that's being widely discussed right now, because Chinese institutions haven't been as comfortable about that, or as used to that. And they're—you know, they're being pushed by other institutions. Hey, you have to take a haircut too. We all have to—we all have to do that. There is a little bit of that going on. But it's something—I mean, if you read the article suggested in the email about this talk by Deborah Brautigam, she really unpacks that in great detail. And she makes an argument that there's some kind of learning and give and take that's happening and we need to see more of it. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. Next question from Lindsey McCormack, who's a graduate student at CUNY Baruch College: There's a lot of activity in the U.S. and Europe with new disclosure standards on climate and social impacts of corporations. How do the multilateral development banks relate to this activity? Are they seeing more pressure to discuss—oh, sorry—disclose climate and social impacts of their lending? GUTNER: Yes. (Laughs.) Yes. Now, they already do a lot. They already have environmental and social safeguards. And they've all moved away from funding oil and gas, or mostly oil and some gas. So they're moving away from that. And they're all working together, actually—I mean, I think it's an important example of networking—of the network of MDBs—that they're all moving toward meeting—complying with the Paris Agreement and showing how they're doing that. Now, some of this is how they measure things, and how they label things, and how they account for things. So there's still some debate on whether they're doing enough. But there's, for sure, pressure from NGOs and others. And the banks are moving in that direction. And they're—they're proudly touting how their projects comply. A high percentage of their projects are complying with the Paris Agreement. But there's still some interesting criticism coming out. So, for example, there was a recent report by a German NGO that said the World Bank's private sector lending arm, the IFC—that the IFC was making loans for trade support where that money might go into oil and gas. But you can't tell, right? So they were calling for more transparency on how the IMF is—how the IFC is doing trade credits. So that's something that's very recent. You can look that up and read more about it. FASKIANOS: Just to follow on, how are the multilateral development banks structured? And how effective do you think they are? GUTNER: Structured in terms of what? I mean, I can talk generally in case—so they— FASKIANOS: Yeah, I think corporate structure. GUTNER: So they have—they all have board of governors, which are all the top relevant officials of their member states, typically the finance minister or the central bank head. And they meet once or twice a year. And they make the big decisions. So one thing that's important to realize is a lot of these countries are members of a lot of development bank—there's a lot of overlap in membership. And that's also a way to cross-fertilize ideas, and policies, and things like that. They all have boards of directors, which are more engaged with the day-to-day business. And the—voting is based on your shareholding in the development bank. And that is based broadly on your economic strength. So the economically stronger companies have—stronger countries have a larger share and more voting power. And then you have the presidents of these organizations that have an important leadership role. And then you have the staff. So that's basically the structure of these development banks. And meeting next week are the board of governors and the directors in Marrakech for the World Bank and IMF. And you can see how they engage with staff and how they help set the strategic tone for the institutions. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. And I just want to remind everybody to raise your hand if you want to ask a question. Everybody's a little bit shy today, or else Tammi's been so thorough that you have no questions. (Laughter.) But I have more questions. But first, I'm going to go to Don Habibi, who is a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington: With yesterday's stock market plunge and political instability in the U.S., how much concern should we have over the multitrillion-dollar national debt? GUTNER: So that's not an issue that directly impacts the international financial institutions, the IMF, and the World Bank, right now. I mean, the U.S. is the largest shareholder of both, and they both—or, the World Bank has a AAA credit rating. So it's not really—we might be concerned over national debt, but so far it's not having a big impact on the dollar. So far, it's not having a big impact on investment. So there's always kind of some concern, but it's not—it's not translating into anything that's making people nervous about how these organizations operate. But, you know, one place to look for an answer, I'll tell you this, is when the IMF does surveillance, it does—which are its reports on the economic health of individual member states. It does these surveillance reports even on the rich countries. It does them for everyone. So I would suggest you look for the latest article for surveillance report that the IMF has done on the United States, and see what it has to say about concerns about debt. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. You recently completed a book manuscript on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Some policymakers and scholars have argued it is a threat to the World Bank. Can you talk about if you agree with that or disagree? GUTNER: Oh, right. So I answered a little bit of that earlier, actually, which is: I don't think it's a threat because I think it's cut from the same cloth as these other development banks in terms of it has similar policies, it has similar governance rules. The World Bank—it's signed MOUs, memoranda of understanding, with all these other development banks. It cooperates with them. It cofinances projects with them. So I think the narrative of the AIIB being a threat is not correct. Could something change in the future? Who knows. But there has been a recent scandal at the AIIB. And we don't know how that will yet be resolved, where this past summer the Canadian director of communications resigned dramatically, suddenly, arguing that Communist Party committees were somehow involved in the work of the bank. And we—so, Canada froze its membership. So that's a bit of a scandal and a crisis at the AIIB. And Canada is doing its own report on what happened. So I kind of think we have to see what comes out of that report. If Canada decided to leave the AIIB, would it impact any other members? Too early to say. But so far, there's nothing directly threatening about its work. It's walked and talked and behaved like other development banks. It does have some differences. It has a nonresident board, which was seen as a cost-saving measure. You know, why have all these people sit around and cost a lot of money? But there are some civil society actors who think that that could produce less accountability. If the board is not there, you know, the bank has more kind of autonomy to do—more independence. So there are some differences. But so far, it's been just another member of the multilateral development bank system. FASKIANOS: Thank you. All right. We have more hands raised, which I'm very excited about. Tanisha Fazal, who is the Weinstein chair of international studies at University of Richmond: You mentioned the difficulties of collaboration between IMF and the World Bank. Can you please elaborate on what you see as the primary obstacles to collaboration between MDBs? GUTNER: Yes. I'm happy to talk about that. So that was the topic of my year—my Council on Foreign Relations fellowship at the International Monetary Fund's Independent Evaluation Office. And we were evaluating Bank-Fund collaboration. And I was part of the overall evaluation, which you can find online. And I also wrote a separate paper on the history of Bank-Fund collaboration. And I found it to be absolutely fascinating, because these two institutions were created together at the Bretton Woods Conference. And they're called the Bretton Woods twins. They're literally across the street from each other. There's an underground passage that connects the two. They interact all the time. They have a joint orchestra. I don't know if anybody knew that. (Laughs.) They used to share a library. So there's a lot of—if any two organizations should be able to work closely together, it's these two, right? This should be your best case, and yet they've struggled for their entire existence. And I think one of the obstacles is that over time their issues have overlapped. So an example of that is today, when the IMF is doing more on climate change, gender, and inequality, which traditionally is the work of the Bank. So their work has kind of—over time, given the issues facing the world, it's kind of naturally overlapped. And what I found that was very interesting is in over twenty-five different formal attempts the two institutions produced to collaborate with each other—memos and announcements by the heads of the institutions—for decades, what they meant by collaboration was turf delineation. Collaboration meant you stay out of my territory. (Laughs.) I don't think of that as collaboration. It's working together on a common objective, right? So that was what they meant by it, and for many years what they—what the solution was, that the institution that's not in charge of this issue should yield to the judgment of the other one—the yield to the judgment one. So I think turf overlap has been a problem. But even when they make an effort, often they have different incentives, they have different budget cycles, they have different—you know, it's just not that easy. And the IMF's latest strategy for collaboration has been when IMF staff encounter an issue that they don't have expertise in, they should leverage the expertise of the World Bank and other partners. Well, that, to me, sounds like one-way collaboration, which is an oxymoron, right? That if the IMF needs help, it should call the IMF and get help—I mean, call the World Bank and get help. But for the World Bank, they might be busy. (Laughs.) So those kinds of challenges persist. There have been times where they do create a truly collaborative effort, like the HIPC Initiative, or the FSAPs, or the PRSP—sorry for all the acronyms—but where they—where they have a shared work program and shared guidance and shared expectations. Those have tended to work better than big umbrella exhortations by the leaders saying: Collaborate! You know, do more collaboration. Those have tended to work better, but they also run into individual problems. So really, the upshot is, even though you would expect collaboration to be the easiest and make most sense between these two institutions, in fact, it's often been a struggle. And some people found, when I mentioned the IMF's resilience trust, that's something that would normally have been undertaken by the World Bank. So they have not—they have had challenges collaborating, and those continue. FASKIANOS: Thank you. And I need to correct the record, my apologies. So that question was from Tanisha Fazal, who is an associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. So the next question is from Sandra Joireman, who is the Weinstein chair of international studies at University of Richmond. So my apologies. So this this question is from Sandra: Some of the previous efforts to address the environmental impacts of certain projects were ineffective. Do you think new efforts to address the environment and climate challenge change will be better? If so, why? GUTNER: So I'm guessing you're referring to the World Bank? And, yes, there's a whole long history of the Bank addressing environmental issues. And it really started in the 1980s, when NGOs identified projects that had gone horribly wrong and caused enormous environmental degradation. Like the Polonoroeste highway in Brazil. It was a famous—infamous example. And the Narmada dam in India. These are infamous examples. But when you look over the years, there have been improvements to what kinds of things the Bank can lend money to, how strong the environmental and social safeguards are. So when I look at the whole history of the World Bank and environment, I basically see it is not a one-way trajectory, and as forward or backward. I see it as more zigzag steps, some forward steps, some backward steps, some forward steps, some backward steps. So overall, because climate change is becoming one—it's about to become a major part of the Bank's mission and vision. So before it was shared prosperity and poverty reduction, and now it's going to—if it's all approved next week—it will be shared prosperity, poverty reduction, and a livable planet. So climate change is kind of moving the front row and center. And that will make it harder for the Bank to fund projects that can be criticized. It will make it much more important that it follows these solid environmental and social framework rules. So I think it's a move in the right direction. But as I mentioned earlier, we're still seeing criticism from NGO about things slipping through the cracks, like trade finance, right? Or another area that's weak is the World Bank—the IFC and the World Bank will sometimes lend money to financial intermediaries. So it's like—it's like lending money to a local bank that then lends it out for something else. And there's been less oversight about how that money is on lent, and whether that can go for something that's damaging to climate change or the environment. So they're moving in the right direction. I think there's been progress. I think there's been backward steps and forward steps over the whole arc of the World Bank's efforts in this area. And I think there's still going to be some criticism as they address some of these areas where there's slippage. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question, a raised hand from Sheri Fink. So, Sheri, if you can say who you are and accept the unmute prompt. Q: Oh, I'm sorry. I think I pressed the wrong button. I didn't mean to raise my hand. Sorry about that. FASKIANOS: OK. No problem. All right. I will take the next question from Eric Muddiman, master's student at Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa, Canada: In terms of mobilizing more private capital and development, there has been discussion on MDBs' role in mitigating risk. Private sector are not allowed to invest in BB/BBB ZIP code investments from a regulatory perspective. Are there concrete proposals advancements in these discussions? GUTNER: Yes. Do I know what they all are? No. It's kind of a live discussion. And I know, in the new World Bank—the latest version of the evolution roadmap, there's talk about creating, like, a lab—an innovation lab, or a private sector lab, to try to do more. Some of the banks have hubs in some areas where they—areas in the developing world where they might have better access to private sector actors. And they're trying to engage with private sector actors in conferences and find ways of discussing project ideas. So that's not as concrete as you like, perhaps, but there are efforts to think about this. And there was a seminar at the spring meetings with private sector actors who are also saying that they felt they could do more to engage colleagues and find ways to bring the private sector and public sector together. So there are initiatives, seminars, hubs, labs. You know, all of this stuff is kind of lively and happening right now. And I do think it will be interesting to see what, if anything, catches on. Because, as I mentioned earlier, this discussion has been going on even before 2015, but the turning billions into trillions discussion. And it just hasn't worked out that well, because of these issues like risk, right? Private sector actors may not want to involve in countries where the risk is too great and where countries don't have capacity, where they have weaker capacity. So there are many challenges in this area. And just a variety of activities and ideas being put forward to try to respond. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Next, a raised hand for Walton Brown. You can accept the unmute. There you go, Walton. Q: So I too—I didn't intend to hit anything. I'm so sorry. FASKIANOS: OK. That's OK. GUTNER: You can still ask a question. (Laughter.) FASKIANOS: That's OK! You can still ask a—exactly, Tammi. We can—we can still—we love hearing from you all. So, all right. Well, we will continue on— Q: And my phone is troubled. FASKIANOS: Phone is troubled. (Laughs.) No problem. That's just fine. OK, so I'm going to go next to—let's see, we've got several who don't have affiliations, but let me go to Holley Hansen: A lot of previous questions have focused on the World Bank or IMF operations. But going back to your original remarks, there also been discussion on how internal rules and procedures, such as voting, leave stakeholders out of the decision-making process. What major suggested reforms to internal decision-making do you think are viable? And what are the pros and cons of changing those rules? GUTNER: Well, the voting is part of internal decision-making. So the voting is part of that. And the real issue has been, how can—well, one of the real issues is shouldn't China have a greater stake? Shouldn't China have a higher stake? Because China is now the number-three largest stakeholder in the World Bank and the IMF, after the U.S., number one, and Japan, number two. But its stake, at around 6 percent, is really less than it should be if you follow the kind of formula they use to calculate a state's economic strength. It's been calculated that really it should be more like 12 percent, right? So part of the discussion is how to give developing countries, and especially China, more weight in governance through the—through the voting share. And that's an ongoing discussion. Right now, in today's kind of more tense political—global political environment, it's hard to imagine the U.S. supporting something like that at this juncture of time, although there have been reports that the managing director of the IMF is open to it. So I think this is going to be one of the issues that is discussed in Marrakesh next week, what to do with these voting shares? But they do adjust them every so often. So China did move up from having a lower ranking to now being number three in the IMF and World Bank. So it does happen over time. Internal decision-making is a whole complicated other kind of issue. And these development banks, you know, they all face internal decision-making challenges. They all face kind of common tensions. So one of them is how you balance authority between the country—people who work in the country and people who work on sectoral issues. So how do you—who should—who should have more decision-making authority, the country level or the sector level? There are decision-making issues and tensions between the public sector lending arms of these development banks and the private sector lending arms, because they have different incentives and different goals. So there have been challenges inside these development banks with kind of internal silos and where power and authority should be held. And it's hard to come up with what the right answer is. You know, there are pros and cons to giving more power to the country or more power to the sector. And in fact, these banks restructure from time to time. And if you look at kind of the history of the restructuring of some of the major development banks, they sort of move back and forth between where they think authority should be located. So these issue—it's a whole other can of worms than voting power on the board of directors. But it's important, because it can affect their performance. It can affect their performance and their ability to function effectively. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the last question. We have several quick questions from Fordham again. Let's see. There you go. Q: OK, thank you. So in the worst case scenario that the U.S. and China engage in conflict in Taiwan, how would the World Bank respond to the economic shocks of this in geographically vulnerable neighboring countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines? GUTNER: That's a tough question. Thank you for ending this with a really tough question. We're not supposed to say I don't know. (Laughs.) We're supposed to have—that's a tough one, because, again, China is number three at the World Bank. So if China—couldn't—most of the time voting doesn't happen. Most of the time, it's consensus. So it's hard to predict. I mean, you'd have to unpack a lot of different things there. You'd have to unpack what kind of—what would the World Bank normally do? Would it normally—would it affect development lending to neighboring countries? I mean, it's interesting to look at the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how—what the response to that has been, because Russia's a member of all these institutions too. But the development banks mostly froze lending to Russia. Also, the AIIB did, because it had to comply—to comply with these sanctions. So Russia lending has been frozen. And these institutions are all giving money to Ukraine to help Ukraine rebuild. So there is kind of a situation that can be—that can be used to compare, to kind of get ideas about what might happen, right? And even at the AIIB, Russia is number three largest shareholder in the AIIB. It's China, India, and Russia. And the AIIB immediately froze lending to Russia. So we could—we could kind of play out different scenarios, but there's a lot of unknowns in that case. And I do think looking at the response of MDBs to Russia's invasion of Ukraine could provide some useful lessons. FASKIANOS: Tammi, we are at the end of our time. And I apologize that we couldn't get to all the questions. I wonder if you could just take a minute. You were awarded a CFR Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars, which allowed you to work—be placed in a government office. So if you could just take a minute to talk about that experience and encourage other professors to apply. The deadline's coming up. It's the end of October. So it just would be great for you to just give us your— GUTNER: Absolutely, yes. All the professors in the audience, please apply for this, because it's a special, invaluable experience. When you're—when you're studying something, and you have the opportunity to be an insider for a year, I can't even tell you how much you learn. I learned being—and it's a two-way street. They benefit from the expertise of the scholars who are coming in because we bring a different perspective. We bring different analytical and methodological tools. And I just can't tell you how much I learned that I could never find out as an outsider, including the IMF-World Bank orchestra, or the—(laughs)—yeah, actually, maybe some outsiders know that. But really, to open up the black box of an organization and see firsthand about how things work internally, what the culture's like, how things get done, what happens in the hallways. I mean, all that stuff, all of those kinds of details really enhanced my scholarship and shaped my research direction, working on these issues of collaboration, for example. So if any of you are considering applying, please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about the fellowship. I'd be happy to discuss it with you. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Thank you for that, and for your amazing insights into these issues. And to all of you for your great questions. You can follow Dr. Gutner on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, at @TGutner. And for the students on this call, CFR has paid internships. So to learn more about the internships you can go to—and also the fellowships—you can go to CFR.org/careers. Follow us at @CFR_Academic, and visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. And the next Academic Webinar will take place on Wednesday, October 11, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT). Landry Signé, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, will talk about Africa on the global stage. So, again, thank you to Tamar Gutner. And to all of you, have a great rest of your day. GUTNER: Thanks for having me. And thanks to everyone for attending. (END)
Schon wieder rum! Den Gedanken haben Millionen von Menschen, wenn sie aus dem Urlaub kommen, bzw. die Ferien zu Ende gehen. Was war los die letzten 4 Wochen? Weniger Einsätze? Spektakuläres? Also, was gibt es Neues aus dem Blaulichtmilieu? Wichtige Themen, wenn man die Webseiten der Feuerwehrverbände und die Presse allgemein verfolgt waren: IT-Themen - ausfallsicherer Breitbandanbindung für Feuerwehren, Arbeitsplatz Leitstelle Zukunft, Lobbyarbeit in Berlin des DFV, Treffen mit MdBs; immer wieder Gewalt gegen Einsatzkräfte, zu wenig Frauen in Feuerwehren, Spagat zwischen Ehrenamt und Privatleben. Hitzegefahren für Einsatzkräfte (ist ja nichts Neues, oder)? Messeberichte und Neuerungen im technischen Bereich. Was aber auffällt, sind die Zunahme von Naturkatastrophen und die Zunahme des Einsatzgeschehen insgesamt. Hier ein paar Stichworte: Waldbrände 2023 - Hawaii, Kanada, dort die Hälfte nicht mehr beherrschbar, Teneriffa, Australien, Südfrankreich, Spanien, Südostasien. Unwetter: Rhein-Main-Gebiet über 10.000 Einsätze, Brandenburg Stürme an der Havel mit Schneise der Verwüstung, Monsun in Indien mit mehrere hundert Toten, Überschwemmungen in Österreich und Slowenien, Flutwelle in Norwegen, Sturmtief Hans in ganz Skandinavien. Und sonst noch so? Ätna spuckt Lava, mehrere tausend Tonnen Getreide brennen in La Rochelle, Brückeneinsturz in Genua. Großbrand im Duisburger Hafen, Zugunglücke in Pakistan, Erdbeben in der Türkei, Peking mit 30 Toten nach Regenfällen, Autofrachter brennt vor der Küste. Örtliche Großeinsätze aufzuzählen, würden ca. 500 Podcast-Folgen benötigen. Fazit: Wir werden weltweit gebraucht. Nach Ansicht von Brand Punkt muss nicht nur technisch aufgerüstet werden, sondern auch und gerade menschlich. Was ein höchstrichterliches Urteil und das Sozialgesetzbuch damit zu tun hat, erzählen wir in der nächsten Folge. Wir wünschen dir viel Spaß mit dieser Podcast-Folge. Dein Team von Brand Punkt, Hermann und Carina Hier geht es zur neuen Folge #244: https://brand-punkt.de/244-was-gibts-neues-im-blaulichtmilieu-aktuelles-nach-der-sommerpause/ ____________________________ Brauchst du bei einem Thema, dass dich mental belastet, Unterstützung? Nimm gerne Kontakt zu uns auf: https://brand-punkt.de/kontakt/ Mehr Infos über uns und unsere Arbeit: www.brand-punkt.de Teile diese Podcastfolge und hilf deinen Kamerad:innen: Vielleicht befindet sich ein Kamerad oder Kameradin in einer Situation, bei der genau diese Folge eine wertvolle Unterstützung sein kann - deshalb bitten wir dich: Teile diese Folge und helfe somit auch denjenigen, die diesen kostenfreien Podcast noch nicht kennen.
◆ G20 tries again for MDBs to do more ◆ The investment case for Turkey after UAE steps in ◆ Will the CMBS revival be stunted?Multilateral development banks, which borrow money from the bond market at triple-A rates to fund projects in the developing world, are the subject of great scrutiny as the world claws its way out of the pandemic and grapples with climate change.The G20, which met this week in India, is urging them to raise more on the capital markets to lend greater support in the developing world. This week, we reveal how these financially conservative institutions are coming round to the G20's way of thinking after much initial resistance. We discuss why and what that means for the capital markets.Meanwhile, the UAE has made a huge financial commitment to help Turkey as it recovers from devastating earthquakes in February. We took the opportunity to examine how that and president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, re-elected in May, might be changing international investors' views on the country.Finally, the European CMBS market is making a comeback. We discuss how but more importantly, what structural impediments limit this asset class from reaching its full potential.
The U.S. dollar's status as the global reserve currency is diminishing, which reduces the power that U.S. leaders have over the global economic system. In this episode, hear highlights from recent Congressional testimony during which financial elites examine the current status of the global financial system and what Congress is being told to do to address perceived threats to it (and to their own power). Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! View the show notes on our website at https://congressionaldish.com/cd276-the-demise-of-dollar-dominance Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD269: NDAA 2023/Plan Ecuador CD230: Pacific Deterrence Initiative CD195: Yemen CD187: Combating China CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? International Monetary Fund “IMF Financial Activities List 2023.” Updated June 21, 2023. International Monetary Fund. “Weekly Report on Key Financial Statistics.” June 9, 2023. International Monetary Fund. “IMF Lending.” Updated December 2022. International Monetary Fund. Argentina “Argentina: Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding” October 17, 2018. International Monetary Fund. “Argentina Policy Memorandum.” January 11, 1999. International Monetary Fund. Ecuador “Ecuador—Supplementary Letter of Intent.” March 13, 2003. International Monetary Fund. Smaller Banks within the World Trade System International Finance Corporation China “Members and Observers.” World Trade Organization. “ China and the WTO.” World Trade Organization. “From ‘China Shock' to deglobalisation shock: China's WTO accession and US economic engagement 20 years on.” Stephen Kirchner. January 24, 2022. United States Studies Centre. “The China Reckoning: How Beijing Defied American Expectations.” Kurt M. Campbell and Ely Ratner. February 13, 2018. Foreign Affairs. The World Bank “Who can borrow from the World Bank?” December 10, 2020. Bretton Woods Observer. “Domination of the United States on the World Bank.” Eric Toussaint. April 2, 2020. Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt. “Why Is the World Bank Still Lending to China?” Yukon Huang. January 15, 2020. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Congressional Stock Trade Tracking Quiver Quantitative Unusual Whales US Abuse of Sanctions “The Other Counteroffensive to Save Ukraine.” Lawrence Summers et. al. June 15, 2023. Foreign Affairs. Allies Pivoting “Europe must resist pressure to become ‘America's followers,' says Macron.” Jamil Anderlini and Clea Caulcutt. April 9, 2023. Politico. “US State Dept backs latest raft of Saudi, UAE, Jordan arms sales.” February 2, 2022. Al Jazeera. Witnesses Mark Rosen on Linkedin Daniel F. Runde on Linkedin “Membership Roster.” Accessed June 24, 2023. Council on Foreign Relations. Tyler Goodspeed on Linkedin Carla Norrlof - “Board of Directors.” Atlantic Council. Daniel McDowell bio Marshall Billingslea on Linkedin Audio Sources Dollar Dominance: Preserving the U.S. Dollar's Status as the Global Reserve Currency June 7, 2023 House Financial Services Committee Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Dr. Tyler Goodspeed, Kleinheinz Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University Dr. Michael Faulkender, Dean's Professor of Finance, Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland Dr. Daniel McDowell, Associate Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University Marshall Billingslea, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Dr. Carla Norrlöf, Senior Fellow, The Atlantic Council and Professor, University of Toronto Clips 34:05 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: In 2022, as the Ranking Member highlighted, 88% of all foreign exchange transactions by value involved the United States Dollar, a figure that has been roughly constant since 1989, which is testament to the substantial path dependence in international currency usage due to large positive network externalities. As the Ranking Member also highlighted, 59% of all official foreign exchange reserves were held in US dollars, which is down from a figure of 71.5% in 2001. By comparison 31% of all foreign exchange transactions by value involve the Euro, which is the second most commonly transacted currency, which accounted for 20% of official foreign exchange reserves. 34:50 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: The fact that 90% of all foreign exchange transactions continue to involve the United States dollar, and that global central banks continue to hold almost 60% of their foreign exchange reserves in US dollars confers net economic benefits on the United States economy. First, foreign demand for reserves of US dollars raises demand for dollar denominated securities, in particular United States Treasury's. This effectively lowers the cost of borrowing for US households, US companies, and federal, state and local governments. It also means that on average, the United States earns more on its investments in foreign assets than we have to pay on foreign investments in the United States, which allows the United States to import more goods and services than we export. Second, foreign demand for large reserves of US dollars and dollar denominated assets raises the value of the dollar and a stronger dollar benefits us consumers and businesses that are net importers of goods and services from abroad. Third, large reserve holdings of US currency abroad in effect constitutes an interest free loan to the United States worth about $10 to $20 billion per year. Fourth, the denomination of the majority of international transactions in US dollars likely modestly lowers the exchange rate risks faced by US companies. Fifth, the given the volume of foreign US dollar holdings and dollar denominated debt, monetary policy actions by foreign central banks generally have a smaller impact on financial conditions in the United States than actions by the United States Central Bank have on financial conditions in other countries. 36:40 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: However, the benefits of the US dollar's global reserve status are not without costs. The lower interest rates in the United States benefit US borrowers, especially the federal government. They also lower returns to US savers. In addition, though a stronger dollar benefits US consumers and businesses that net import goods and services from abroad, it does also disadvantage US firms that export goods and services abroad as well as firms that compete against imported goods and services. Furthermore, the perception of the US dollar as a safe haven asset means that demand for the dollar tends to increase in response to adverse macroeconomic events that are global in nature. As a result, the competitiveness of US exporters and US firms that compete against imported goods and services are likely to face an increased competitive disadvantage at times of elevated global macroeconomic stress. 37:35 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: However, despite these costs, studies generally find that the economic benefits of the dollar's prominent global status outweigh the costs, providing a modest net benefit to the United States economy. This does not include the substantial benefit to which the chairman referred of the United States dollar's centrality in global transactions, allowing the United States to utilize financial sanction tools when appropriate in support of national security objectives. 44:50 Dr. Daniel McDowell: With little more than the stroke of the President's pen or through an Act of Congress, the US government can use financial sanctions to impose enormous economic costs on targeted foreign actors, be they individuals, firms, or state institutions, by freezing their dollar assets or cutting them off from access to the banks through which those dollars flow. The consequences for individual targets, known as specially designated nationals or SDNs, are severe, significantly impairing targets capacity to participate in international trade, investment, debt repayment, and depriving them of access to their wealth. Over the last two decades, the United States has used the tool of financial sanctions with increasing frequency. For example, in the year 2000, just four foreign governments were directly targeted under a US Treasury Country Program overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Today that number is greater than 20, and if we include penalties from secondary sanctions the list gets even longer. The more that the United States has reached for financial sanctions, the more it has made adversaries and foreign capitals aware of the strategic vulnerability that stems from dependence on the dollar. Some governments have responded by implementing anti-dollar policies measures that are designed to reduce an economy's reliance on the US currency for investment in cross-border transactions. But these measures sometimes fail to achieve their goals. Others have produced modest levels of de-dollarization. Notable examples here include Russian steps to cut its dollar reserves and reduce the use of the dollar and trade settlement in the years leading up to its full scale invasion of Ukraine, or China's ongoing efforts to build its own international payments network based on the Yuan, efforts that have taken on a new sense of urgency as Beijing has become more aware of its own strategic vulnerabilities from Dollar dependence. 47:05 Dr. Daniel McDowell: The United States should reconsider the use of so-called symbolic financial sanctions. That is, if the main objective of a tranche of sanctions is to signal to the world or to a domestic audience that Washington disapproves of a foreign government's policy choices, other measures that can send a similar signal but do not politicize the dollar system ought to be considered first. Second, the use of financial sanctions against issuers of potential rival currencies in particular, China and its Yuan should face a higher bar of scrutiny. Even a small targeted sanctions program provides information to our adversaries about their vulnerabilities, and gives them time to prepare for a future event when a broad US sanctions program may be called upon as part of a major security crisis, when such measures will be most needed. Finally, whenever possible, US financial sanctions should be coordinated with our allies in Europe and Asia, who should feel as if they are key stakeholders in the dollar system and not vassals to it. Such coordinated efforts will prevent our friends from seeking to conduct business with U.S. adversaries outside of the dollar system and send a message to the whole world that moving activities into secondary currencies, like the Euro or the Yen, is not a safe haven. 48:35 Marshall Billingslea: I'll say at the outset that I agree with you and others that to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the dollar's demise have been greatly exaggerated. That said, we need to remind ourselves that in the 16th century the Spanish silver dollar was the dominant currency, in the 17th century it was Dutch florins, in the 18th century it was the pound sterling. The link between a nation's currency and its role as the relatively dominant political actor on the world stage is pretty clear. And that is why people like Lula from Brazil, Putin and Xi all aspire to undercut the role of the dollar as the global reserve currency. 50:00 Marshall Billingslea: If we look at what Russia did in the run-up to its further invasion of Ukraine, they began dumping ownership of treasury bonds in 2018. In that year, they plummeted from $96 billion and holdings down to $15 billion and they also started buying large amounts of gold. China is now, as the Ranking Member has observed, embarking on its own its own gold buying spree. I haven't seen the data for May, but April marked the sixth straight month of Chinese expansion in its gold holdings, and I'm not sure I believe the official figures. We have to recall that China is the dominant gold mining player around the world and half of those gold mining companies are state-owned. So the actual size of China's war chest when it comes to gold reserves may be far higher. In fact, I suspect inevitably far higher than official numbers suggest. Last year China also started dumping its treasuries. 2022 marked the largest or second largest decrease on record, with a drop of about $174 billion, and China stood at the lowest level since 2010. In terms of its holdings, though, this past March they did reverse course. This bears close watching because a sell-off may be a strong indicator of planned aggression. 51:20 Marshall Billingslea: The sheer size of the Chinese economy dwarfs what we've been contending with in the form of Iran, Russia, and so on. And one of the first things that the Biden administration did in the wake of Russia's attack was start sanctioning Russian banks and de-SWIFTing them. That's one thing when you're going after an economy smaller than the size of Texas; it's quite another when you consider that out of the 100 largest banks in the world, China has 20, and all four of the top four are Chinese banks. And that is why many within the Treasury contended when I was there, and they will contend to this day, that these Chinese banks are simply too big to sanction. I don't agree that we can allow that to stand but I do believe we have to start taking very swift action to put us in a situation where we could take punitive measures on these banks if necessary. 54:10 Dr. Carla Norrlöf: I will note that the Dollar's dominance is not quite as strong amongst private actors and private markets as it is with governments. In private transactions, it averages about 45% of the world's total. That includes FX transactions, but also things like issuance of international debt, securities, and cross-border banking. 54:55 Dr. Carla Norrlöf: The Chinese Yuan poses no immediate threat to dollar dominance. It accounts for roughly 3% of overall reserves. So far China has been successful in promoting the Yuan with its trade partners, but the Yuan is scarcely used by countries outside trade with China. China is a potential long term challenger due to its active pursuit of trade and investment relationships. If the Yuan is increasingly used by third countries, it will pose a greater threat to the dollar. 55:30 Dr. Carla Norrlöf: And in addition to these external threats, there is also a domestic threat. Flirting with the possibility of a voluntary default puts dollar dominance at risk. What should the US do to maintain dominance, to curb the domestic threat? Congress should consider creating an alternative mechanism for resolving political differences on government spending and its consequences. 56:00 Dr. Carla Norrlöf: To rein in external threats the United States should, whenever possible, implement multilateral sanctions in support of broadly endorsed goals to shore up the liberal international order. This is likely to limit dollar backlash. 59:40 Marshall Billingslea: The thing I do worry -- I come back to this fact that they've been buying a lot of gold -- that one of the things that they could do, which would be very concerning, if they wind up having larger reserves of gold than we believe, is they could start issuing Yuan or gold denominated, gold-backed Yuan contracts and that would further their ambition for introducing the Yuan onto the world stage. 1:05:00 Marshall Billingslea: China considers the actual composition of its foreign exchange reserves to be a state secret. So they don't publish and they they view it as a criminal offense to try to obtain that information in terms of the balance of how much is gold, how much Dollar or Euro denominated. But the numbers I've seen suggest that still at this moment, about 50% to 60% of their Foreign Exchange reserves are still in Dollars or Euros, which means that they are at high risk of sanctions; we can affect them. The problem is that that war chest that they've built up is enormous. It's more than $3 trillion that they have in Foreign Exchange reserves. Compare that with what Russia had at the onset of its assault, which was around $680 billion, of which we managed to freeze overseas half of it, but Russia is still keeping its economy going despite the Biden administration sanctions. So imagine how they're going to be able to continue with that sizable war kitty in Beijing if they do decide to go after the Taiwanese. 1:09:00 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: Short term I think the risk is that we continue to see diversification away from the dollar, PRC continuing to push other countries to use trade inverse invoicing and Renminbi, that they continue to promote the offshore Renminbi market, that they continue to promote or force bilateral clearing. Longer term, I think the bigger risk is that foreign investors no longer perceive the United States federal government debt to be as safe and risk free as it is today perceived. 1:41:20 Dr. Daniel McDowell: The demonstration of US control over the actual flow of dollars, of communication, absolutely provides information to adversaries to prepare for events where they may face similar circumstances. And so I think what we're seeing is China, we're seeing Russia, we're seeing other countries try to create alternative payments networks. Russia has its own SPFS payment messaging system. It's quite small. It was launched in 2014, not coincidentally, after the initial round of sanctions targeting Russia. In terms of CIPS, China's cross border payments network, Belarus announced it was having banks join immediately following the 2022 sanctions. So what I'm saying is there's a pattern between when the United States mobilizes control over the pipes and the messaging of cross-border payments and adversaries looking for alternatives. It doesn't mean they're using them, but they're getting plugged into the system as at least sort of a rainy day option in the event of a future targeting. 1:45:35 Dr. Daniel McDowell: I look at China not just as a typical country, because I think they're an alternative service provider. Most countries fall into alternative service users; they're looking for an alternative to the dollar. China, you could perhaps put Europe in this as well, are the only two sort of economic BLOCs capable, I think, of constructing an attractive enough cross-border payments network that could attract those alternative service users that are looking for that network. And so that's why I think again, with China, there should be a higher bar of scrutiny. 2:02:20 Dr. Tyler Goodspeed: As deficits mount and as the debt burden rises above 100%, I think the Congressional Budget Office has it ending the budget window at about 119% of our economy, then we will probably observe an acceleration of diversification away from the dollar as a hedge. Again, I don't see another single currency displacing the dollar as the major international currency or as the major reserve currency, but continued diversification. International Financial Institutions in an Era of Great Power Competition May 25, 2023 House Financial Services Committee Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Jesse M. Schreger, Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School Mark Rosen, Partner, Advection Growth Capital and former Acting Executive Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Daniel F. Runde, Senior Vice President, Center for Strategic & International Studies(CSIS) Rich Powell, Chief Executive Officer, ClearPath & ClearPath Action Daouda Sembene, Distinguished Nonresident Fellow, CGD and CEO, AfriCatalyst Clips 39:55 Mark Rosen: The IMF is the global lender of last resort to countries that are in economic distress. IMF borrowers usually have a balance of payments problem, are running out of foreign exchange reserves, and so cannot meet their obligations. The IMF negotiates a set of economic policies with the borrower in government to alleviate the crisis, and, conditional on the government implementing the agreed policies, provides a loan in tranches, normally over a three year period. 41:00 Mark Rosen: The biggest challenge the IMF faces today is China which, as we've heard, has lent vast sums to emerging market and low income countries in a non-transparent and irresponsible manner. Many IMF members are now struggling to repay China. 42:05 Mark Rosen: The United States is the largest shareholder in the IMF and has veto power over certain key decisions and it's critical that the US continues to maintain its ownership of more than 15% which enables it to have this veto power. 42:20 Mark Rosen: China for some time, has been pressing for an increased quota share at the IMF. However, given its irresponsible lending, and then willingness to provide debt relief to developing countries, this is not the time to reward China with increased ownership at the Fund. Two other issues I'd like to focus on are anti-corruption and the catalytic role of the private sector in the work of the IMF. Corruption is a severe problem for many emerging market countries, which do not have strong institutions that can confront and root out corruption. The IMF is certainly doing a much better job than it did historically on anti-corruption, but I believe it's critical that it continues to make anti corruption laws and policies front and center in the conditions of its lending programs, as well as a focus of its technical assistance. Only by reducing corruption will many of these countries be able to attract the vast amount of private sector investment which is potentially available and remains the ultimate key to reducing poverty. Establishing a rule of law, including laws to protect private property is key to unlocking this investment. And it should be a focus of the IMF and World Bank to encourage these countries to improve the rule of law and to fight corruption. If they do that, emerging market countries can attract private capital and grow rapidly as many countries that have followed that path have already done so successfully. 44:45 Daniel Runde: Multilateral development banks, MDBs, under US and Western leadership are one way that we can respond with something. The United States built and strengthened the MDB system. MDBs provide money, advice, data and convening power to help developing countries solve problems. If the US exerts its influence over these institutions, they are forced multipliers of a US-led global system. If we disregard our leadership role, then other actors, including China, can exert influence over them. The World Bank Group is a series of institutions: it lends money to national governments, it has a private sector arm, and has an insurance arm. There are a series of other regional development bank's including the InterAmerican Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank -- Taiwan is a member of the Asian Development Bank -- the African Development Bank and the EBRD, the European Bank for Reconstruction Development Bank, focused mainly on countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain. The United States has been instrumental in creating the majority of these institutions and remains the largest, or one of the largest, shareholders of every afformentioned MDB. Since the founding of these institutions, the US has used its shareholding power to shape the policies and activities of MDBs in indirect support of American foreign policy. 47:10 Daniel Runde: What role does China play in the MDBs? They're a shareholder. China continues to borrow from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. That is crazy. That needs to stop. China is a shareholder. Also, Chinese firms can bid on MDB projects. China wins a lot of in terms of dollar value, a lot of the dollar value of World Bank contracts. Something to take a look at. 47:35 Daniel Runde: How does the Belt and Road figure into the MDBs? You all have heard of the Belt and Road. Infrastructure is now a strategic issue. China's Belt and Road Initiative is a combination of construction and financing projects for roads, airports, and energy around the world. Unfortunately for us, BRI is an ambitious project that speaks to the hopes of China's friends and potential friends. To counter the BRI, the US needs a positive alternative that says more than, "Don't work with China." Right? That's not a strategy. We've got to have an alternative. 1:12:50 Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY): How do we end China's eligibility to borrow from the World Bank? Daniel Runde: The Asian Development Bank has said they're going to end their eligibility by 2025. We should absolutely hold them to that. There is a temptation for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to continue to loan for a couple of reasons. One is they say, "Well, this is a window into how we can understand China better." There's lots of other ways to understand China better. And or this is a way for us to -- for a bunch of lending reasons that they do it. You all have the power of the purse, you have an ability, I think you should have blunted conversations with the administration about this. I suspect it's an open door, but it's going to require, I think, some pushing from Congress. I would encourage this committee to push the administration on ending lending to China. 1:14:30 Jesse Schreger: So fundamentally right now, the Renminbi is not yet positioned to compete with the US dollar for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the reason that the dollar plays the role it does in the international financial system is it provides the global safe asset. You're confident, except for the upcoming debt ceiling, that you will always be paid back if you own US dollars. That's fundamentally what you know. When you contemplate investing in China and holding Chinese Renminbi as reserves, you're not necessarily sure that you're gonna be able to turn that piece of paper into the goods and services that you need or intervening in FX markets. 1:21:15 Jesse Schreger: First and foremost, what China is trying to do is essentially convince countries around the world that the Renminbi is an alternative asset to invoice your trade and to invest in. And so on the investment side, they've been working very hard to actually allow in foreign capital, encouraging foreign central banks to hold Renminbi denominated bonds as their reserves. And on the trade side, they're encouraging firms to invoice, basically price their goods, in Renminbi. There's a few areas in which they've had challenges there. So first, we actually don't know who are holding most of these Renminbi denominated assets. What you can see is after the US sanctioned Russia back in 2014, it was the Russian Central Bank that effectively announced they were moving out of US dollar denominated assets and into Renminbi, so they did that publicly. And so China has effectively been trying to attract foreign capital of that form and a lot of the reasons for that is that China finds itself vulnerable in the dollar-based financial system. And so what I would say the fundamental area in which the United States can assure the dominance of the dollar is making everyone understand that US Treasuries are the world's safe asset that there is no state of the world in which the United States can or will default. 2:03:25 Jesse Schreger: I think the real way in which people start being able to issue and borrow in Renminbi is when people start thinking in terms of the goods that they need to buy and consume are in Renminbi. Fundamentally, most countries around the world, if they issue a bond in Renminbi, the calculation they have to do is then "okay, I'm going to take my renminbi and convert it into US dollars to buy the thing in which I need." And so while actions in the US financial system are certainly going to affect other countries decisions to borrow in Renminbi, the kind of underlying challenges in Chinese financial markets and fundamentally the lack of goods priced and sold in Renminbi are going to continue to hold back kind of a growth of this market for a while. And in particular, the fact that many countries are reluctant to try to raise money inside of China's liquid onshore capital markets for, effectively, fear of capital controls. If you've raised renminbi in China, you can't get that out and to your projects the way you can if you raise money in the US in dollars. 2:14:55 Daniel Runde: The business model of the World Bank is they lend money to richer countries with a pretty good credit rating and then they cross subsidize that by lending to poor countries with a poor credit rating. My view is, China can finance its own development, we should stop this practice. I think the Asian Development Bank has sort of gotten the memo, but the World Bank has not fully gotten the memo and they'll give you kind of World Bank-y answers to this sort of thing. We got to stop it. Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA): Mr. Runde, I could not agree with you more. And you highlighted earlier, you know, by 2025, China should graduate from this program. I'd offer that 25 is two years too late. We can start funneling them off that now. Daniel Runde: I agree, sir. Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA): I think you're in the right spot. Thank you. Music Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio) Editing Pro Podcast Solutions Production Assistance Clare Kuntz Balcer Cover photo Eric Prouzet on Unsplash
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adrian Bazbauers and Susan Engel's 2021 book The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (Routledge, 2023) explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognizable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialized development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinized, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy. Dr. Susan Engel is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies and co-Director of the Future of Rights Centre. Her research interests focus on the impact of neoliberalism on development and international political economy. Dr Adrian Robert Bazbauers is a Senior Lecturer in International Public Sector Management, and Undergraduate Coordinator, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/finance
There was a lot of excitement earlier this month at the IMF and World Bank's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. about rumors that the impasse between China and multilateral development banks (MDBs) had been resolved. That stalemate between the Chinese and the MDBs, namely the World Bank, has impeded debt restructuring deals in Sri Lanka, Zambia, and now Ghana among other countries.But now, two weeks later, there's still no official confirmation from either China or the MDBs that they've settled their differences.Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, attended the Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., and joins Eric & Cobus to give an update on the current state of debt relief for some of the world's poorest countries.JOIN THE DISCUSSION:Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @kevinpgallagher | @gdp_centerFacebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectYouTube: www.youtube.com/ChinaAfricaProjectFOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChineعربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfrJOIN US ON PATREON!Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!www.patreon.com/chinaafricaprojectSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There was a lot of excitement earlier this month at the IMF and World Bank's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. about rumors that the impasse between China and multilateral development banks (MDBs) had been resolved. That stalemate between the Chinese and the MDBs, namely the World Bank, has impeded debt restructuring deals in Sri Lanka, Zambia, and now Ghana among other countries.But now, two weeks later, there's still no official confirmation from either China or the MDBs that they've settled their differences.Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, attended the Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., and joins Eric & Cobus to give an update on the current state of debt relief for some of the world's poorest countries.JOIN THE DISCUSSION:Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @kevinpgallagher | @gdp_centerFacebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectYouTube: www.youtube.com/ChinaAfricaProjectFOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChineعربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfrJOIN US ON PATREON!Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject
How can MDBs like the World Bank derisk utility-scale renewable energy projects in developing countries and motivate more private capital to participate?
Climate Week wrapped up last week in New York City, and throughout the week, we heard about the systemic changes needed to combat climate change. In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we're bringing you key takeaways, highlights and interviews from our time on the ground. We hear from Global Head of Sustainable Investing at Natixis Investment Managers, Nathalie Wallace, about the role the investment community plays in combating climate change. Ivan Frishberg, Chief Sustainability Officer at New York-based Amalgamated Bank, talks to us about the growing sense of urgency around climate and the challenges of the current ESG landscape. And we interview Amy Hepburn, CEO of the Investor Leadership Network, which represents institutional investors with more than $10 trillion dollars in assets under management. She talks about the ‘3 Cs' needed to find solutions to climate change: collaboration, cooperation and creativity. "For a long time in this space, we have all operated in silos and echo chambers talking to like-minded actors: Investors talking to investors, [multilateral development banks] talking to MDBs, governments talking to governments," Amy says. "This issue is not going to be solved by any one of those sets of actors — it's only going to be solved in concert." You can read more of our key takeaways from Climate Week NYC here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/blog/5-questions-on-the-road-from-climate-week-to-cop27 We'd love to hear from you. To give us feedback on this episode or share ideas for future episodes, please contact hosts Lindsey Hall (lindsey.hall@spglobal.com) and Esther Whieldon (esther.whieldon@spglobal.com). DISCLAIMER By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information featured in this Podcast. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice. Unless specifically stated otherwise, S&P GLOBAL does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this Podcast, and information from this Podcast should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. The third party materials or content of any third party site referenced in this Podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions, standards or policies of S&P GLOBAL. S&P GLOBAL assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of the content contained in third party materials or on third party sites referenced in this Podcast or the compliance with applicable laws of such materials and/or links referenced herein. Moreover, S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty that this Podcast, or the server that makes it available, is free of viruses, worms, or other elements or codes that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. S&P GLOBAL EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY INDIVIDUAL'S USE OF, REFERENCE TO, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PODCAST OR THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS PODCAST.
Did you know that The UN Secretary-General has called the climate crisis a “code red” warning for humanity, yet multinational development banks (MDBs) continue to pump public money into climate-unfriendly industrial animal agriculture? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Kari Hamerschlag, Deputy Director of Friends of the Earth's Food and Agriculture Program and the Climate-Friendly Food Program. Hamerschlag discusses her research on multinational development banks, and their role in funding industrial livestock operations (CAFOs), thereby ignoring warnings from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. Both the IPCC and the U.N. advise transforming and scaling back greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from CAFOs in order to build resiliency and reach Paris climate goals. (Part 1)Related website: https://foodtank.com/news/2022/06/public-banks-are-breaking-their-climate-pledges/
In the final episode for 2021, Faheem and Rachel reflect on the conversation with Ambassador Fuller and share more information that came out of COP26 and from the MDBs on climate investing.
Als jetzt von den politisch tätigen Menschen einvernehmlich die Impfpflicht verkündet wurde, wunderte ich mich – neben vielem anderen – auch darüber, warum die Einführung auf den Februar oder März 2022 geschoben wurde. Wenn es schon so dringlich ist und angeblich hilft, warum nicht gleich? Ein Leser aus der Nachbarschaft, der den MdBs aus derWeiterlesen
Einfach mal 'nein‘ sagen: Jaja, nichts leichter als das? In der vergangenen Woche haben wir es einfach mal getan. Und damit ‚ja‘ zu uns und unserer Gesundheit gesagt: Gehirnerschütterung, Bronchitis, Blasenentzündung und Corona-Quarantäne. Was zu viel ist, ist zu viel. Und wir halten fest: Es ist nichts passiert. Die Welt steht noch und dreht sich weiter. Deshalb sprechen wir diese Woche darüber, wie wir besser zu uns selbst sind – und warum wir dafür auf unsere Bedürfnisse hören und uns gleichzeitig weniger ernst nehmen sollten. Außerdem im Programm: Noras Corona-Plan, den sie vermutlich in dieser Sekunde an alle MdBs sendet. Und: Ein Blick nach Glasgow. Nicht zum politischen Klimagipfel, sondern zum Randschauplatz, der Ted Conference, wo die Aktivistin Lauren MacDonald den Shell CEO Ben van Beurden angeklagt hat, große Schuld an der Klimakrise zu tragen – und nach ihrem emotionalen Rant direkt von der Bühne geht, weil sie diese nicht mit ihm teilen will. Wir fragen uns: Ist das der beste Weg? Wieviele Emotionen dürfen sein? Und wo bleibt eigentlich die Solidarität? Ihr hört: Eine pickepacke volle Folge. Wir freuen uns auf euch, eure Gedanken und euer Feedback. Wir hören uns. – ANZEIGE – WIR SIND NICHT ALLEIN Ganz allein bestreiten wir die Podcast-Reise natürlich nie: Neben euch haben wir auch in dieser Staffel wirklich großartige Partner*innen an Bord. GANZ IN UNSERER HAUT – MIT DR. HAUSCHKA Wir lieben Me Time und deshalb seit Jahren schon unseren Partner Dr. Hauschka. Sich mit den Produkten von Dr. Hauschka zu pflegen, ist ein Erlebnis. Und zwar ein besonders Schönes. Wir stellen euch diese Staffel alles vor, was die Produkte so zu bieten haben, von Gesichts- und Körperpflege bis hin zu Make-up. Naturkosmetik zum Verlieben. Diese Woche unsere liebsten Produkte: Die Badezeit hat begonnen – und deshalb ist Nora schon ganz und gar in der Wanne abgetaucht, mit dem Lavendel-Bad. Hier könnt ihr die ganze Welt von Dr. Hauschka entdecken: https://www.drhauschka.de/. SCHLAFEN – WIE'S WIRKLICH ÜBERALL KLAPPT: MIT BLACKROLL Verspannungen und Schlafprobleme? Kennen wir. Aber wir haben unser kleines Wundermittel gefunden: BLACKROLL® kennst du vielleicht schon von den Faszienrollen für mehr Beweglichkeit und Schmerzfreiheit und bessere Regeneration. Jetzt gibt es das RECOVERY PILLOW aus elastischem, atmungsaktiven Hightech-Memoryschaum. Da sich das Kissen zusammenrollen lässt, passt es in jede Reisetasche. Ein Traum! Hier schenkt euch Blackroll mit dem Code faustdick20 20%: https://bit.ly/3jKd9Nu. GUT GEKLEIDET OHNE SHOPPING-STRESS – MIT OUTFITTERY Endlich ist sie da, die Kleider-Box für Frauen. Denn Outfittery hat pünktlich zum zehnten Geburtstag nun auch Frauen im Blick. Dank einem kleinen Fragebogen sucht Outfittery die passende Kleidung aus – und du wählst online, welche Teile du nach Hause geliefert bekommen möchtest. Und weil wir schon jetzt große Fans sind, haben wir für euch einen dicken Rabatt klargemacht. Hier geht's zu deiner Outfittery-Box und mit unserem Code FAUSTDICK25 sparst du sogar 25 Prozent: https://bit.ly/2ZekA8w.
From the team behind Taxing Matters, we are delighted to be able to share with you a short preview of our newest podcast – Unspoken Giants: International Financial Institutions.Launching soon, in a world first the Unspoken Giants series will bring together senior leaders from the largest International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to discuss their fight against the cancer of corruption and will highlight how this impacts those involved in the projects they fund. From the World Bank and EBRD to the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Global Fund, each episode will provide unique insight into how each IFI operates and the powers they have to investigate and sanction.If you would like to ensure you are alerted once the episodes are released, or would like to discuss International Financial Institutions further, please contact unspokengiants@rpc.co.uk.Show resourcesWhat are MDBs?GIR's focus on MDBsFT report on the IFI response to COVID 19 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Der zweite Direktkandidat, den wir für unser Special gewinnen konnten, ist MdB Oliver Luksic und kandidiert für die FDP. Olli hatte gleich auch noch seine Parteikollegin MdB Carina Konrad als Verstärkung dabei, die ihn an diesem Tag begleitete. Mit den beiden sprechen wir über die Vorteile der FDP-Inhalte für junge Menschen und es geht insbesondere um die Themen Digitalisierung, Verkehrpolitik, Bildungspolitik und auch ein wenig - wie soll es anders sein - um Wein. PS: Dickes Sorry nochmal für die schlechte Tonqualität bei Justins Spur, da ist uns leider ein Fehlerchen bei der Aufnahme unterlaufen. :-)
Gestern haben nach einer hitzigen Debatte und einer namentlichen Abstimmung 342 der insgesamt 709 Bundestagsabgeordneten mit Ja zum „Bevölkerungsschutzgesetz“ genannten neuen Gesetzentwurf gestimmt. Da es allerdings nur 250 Gegenstimmen gab, hat das Gesetz den Bundestag passiert und wird nun dem Bundesrat vorgelegt. Es wird interessant, ob auch die Landesregierungen dem Gesetzentwurf zustimmen, den viele alsWeiterlesen
Rate, review and download our podcast The Multilateral development banks were set up after the Second World War to be the original impact investors, fighting poverty, inequality or more currently climate change. “To demonstrate our impact is crucial at a time where multilateralism is often challenged, when there is a tendency to think that, we are more effective when we work at a country level than at the global level. And I think that the ability to show that and acting in this mutual framework is helpful to deliver some impacts on values because we are building on a very good experience,” said EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso during the opening of the digital discussion. Now more than ever, the MDBs have a very important role to play. The Covid-19 recovery will not be easy. The climate emergency is here. Furthermore, the national governments are dealing with growing mountains of debt. How can we ensure that multilateral lending is effective to help the world emerge from this crisis? What is “iwashing” and the difficulty of attribution were all discussed by: Dean Karlan is the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University and President and Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action Pavan Sukhdev is an environmental economist, banker, former Special Adviser and Head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative, currently CEO of GIST Advisory, and President of WWF International; Beata Javorcik- EBRD’s Chief Economist and Professor of Economics at Oxford University. The discussion was chaired by EBRD Communications Managing Director Jonathan Charles. Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDEconTalks.
https://youtu.be/x5icEjB1zwk00:04:56 Jodi Lynn: To find my new home 00:05:01 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: 1 intention for the month February 00:05:30 Varada Divgi: Create my Aging Purposelully Program 00:06:01 Safia Haque: Create more valuable content for my email list 00:06:43 Michael Lloyd: Really sorry I am late…Great to be here. Hello everyone. 00:06:57 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: WorldBusinessMastermind.com Private Facebook Group: https://www.Facebook.com/Groups/ExclusiveMMM Free Coaching 1st session: GroupBusinessCoaching.com 00:07:51 Michael Lloyd: Be super organised. Confident, spacious & making great connections with others… 00:09:23 Dawood Shaikh: sorry. my mic is not working right now. 00:09:50 Dawood Shaikh: love to every one specially our lovely coach !! 00:10:54 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Red piece of paper by doors with intention 00:11:04 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Share a meal with loved ones 00:12:09 Dawood Shaikh: can spread the words LOVE FOR ALL HATRED FOR NONE 00:14:42 Dawood Shaikh: hope you get better really fast!! 00:18:54 Shehzad Hanif: Thank you Dr Divgi 00:19:59 Jodi Lynn: can not hear you 00:24:52 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Everyone, pls type your burning question that you want us to mastermind about today 00:25:04 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: I.e. I need help with... 00:25:13 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: I.e. I need a referral for… 00:25:20 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: etc 00:26:20 Dawood Shaikh: I need help with the course I do with you MDBS in implementing it practically. 00:26:57 Dawood Shaikh: thanks 00:27:38 Veronica Wetten: I need a referral to an investment bank 00:28:22 Veronica Wetten: they are interested in investment 00:28:41 Michael Lloyd: How about doing a youtube presentation to attract investors by showcasing opportunities & outcomes… 00:29:23 Safia Haque: Invest in advertisement of a Coaching Program, any other option than facebook 00:30:22 Veronica Wetten: linkedin 00:31:22 Varada Divgi: Complete my program and Converting my program into webinar / videos / surveys / blogs 00:33:18 Dawood Shaikh: sorry. I forget it to put to everyone 00:42:48 Shez Hanif: Is Fb advertising the best way to advertise online? 00:43:35 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Invite your loved ones to the monthly: WorldBusinessMastermind.com Private Facebook Group: https://www.Facebook.com/Groups/ExclusiveMMM Free Coaching 1st session: GroupBusinessCoaching.com 00:52:34 Marketing Manager: meetup 00:56:32 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: interns 00:56:40 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Linkedin under jobs 00:56:49 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Facebook under your biz page 00:56:55 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: craigslist 00:57:02 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Your alumni or local universities 00:57:13 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Or do a google search of sites such as: 00:57:18 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Internships.com 00:57:26 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Use the free sites 1st 00:58:56 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: EndGame 2050 01:06:56 Marketing Manager: Mary Morrissey Brave Thinking and Dream Builder. 01:07:42 Varada Divgi: Passive Income Generation 01:08:09 Michael Lloyd: ‘Value' - What is it, how to get more of it & give more of it... 01:09:46 Safia Haque: Hire an intern for my Marketing 01:10:01 Michael Lloyd: I really appreciate you guys appreciating my input & have got a lot of growth going on in my self esteem… 01:10:23 Dr Pezzini - You Have Got The Power: Talk to SnakeMember.com + Dr Divgi etc about co-leading 1 of the next MasterMinds 01:10:25 Varada Divgi: Clarify the ideal client & the value you will provide - 30 second elevator pitch! 01:10:31 Michael Lloyd: Also, keep reminding myself every time you say it, Elena, about the intern thing… 01:10:40 Veronica Wetten: hire an intern from romy research 01:11:04 Shez Hanif: Intern is great
Episode 110: Zach (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachariasmalik/) works as a Researcher across the Sustainable Finance programme at E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism, https://www.e3g.org), focusing on how International Financial Institutions, in particular Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), can accelerate the transition towards a climate-safe world. As part of this, Zach supports aligning MDBs with the Paris Agreement. Prior to joining E3G, Zach worked as a Consultant at the World Bank, focusing on urban development projects across the East Asia and Pacific region. Zach has also been a Researcher at the Japan-based research institute IGES (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies), and a Consultant at Climate-KIC, EU's largest public private partnership addressing climate change. Outside of his role at E3G, Zach freelances at Vivid Economics, a strategic economics consultancy, and Climate Bonds Initiative an international organisation working solely to mobilise the largest capital market of all, the $100 trillion bond market, for climate change solutions. Recently, Zach was contracted by UN Environment and UNDP. Zach holds a BSc in Policy Science (now GED) and minor in Sustainability (now EES) from LUC (class of 2016 1/2) and a MSc in Management and Corporate Sustainability from Cranfield University. He has lived in several countries including Egypt, Australia, Switzerland, France, and South Korea. Zach is currently based in London. Links: Zach's first JT appearance: https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/08-zach-malik-had-five-jobs Development Projects Observed https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2017/07/review-development-projects-observed/ Podast on financing development in Africa https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2020-12-09/why-africa-borrowed-billions-of-dollars-from-china-podcast
ICMA Chief Executive Martin Scheck speaks to Axel van Nederveen, Treasurer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) about EBRD’s role in developing robust domestic capital markets. The discussion covers the responsibilities of MDBs in helping to create capital market infrastructure in developing economies, the challenges involved and embedding the EBRD’s values of socially sound and sustainable development.
TFG heard from ICC Banking Commission experts who are taking a step beyond the hype of sustainable trade finance, and looking at the role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) on what sustainable trade finance means and what the industry must do. There’s no doubt that Covid-19 has also changed appetite here. Companies are under pressure to see what’s happening right across their supply chains, and tracing any items in them – from field to factory to customer (and beyond). Integrating any tools that can support resilient supply chains can also underpin sustainability efforts. Access the resources and more information about the initiatives discussed in this podcast here: https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/posts/podcast-s1-e54-podcast-multilateral-perspective-a-roadmap-for-sustainable-trade-finance/
The FCPA at Midlife: Lucinda Low, partner with Steptoe & Johnson, LLP and a leading authority on the FCPA provides a global tour de force of what companies and institutions need to be thinking about regarding the FCPA, MDBs and their anticorruption efforts.
2 Bottles Talk hosted by @naoki_nihei ゲスト 小林文彦さん 中沢賢治さん 配信情報はFairly.fmホームページ及びツイッター(@fairly_fm)に…
Ericsson settles a long running FCPA enforcement action, coming at No. 2 on the all-time list. Tom lectures Jay about the need for his Patriots to stop cheating (again). They also other of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes. Ericsson settles the second largest FCPA enforcement action of all time. Ericsson comes in the FCPA Blog’s all-time Top Ten FCPA Enforcements and also Number 2 on the all-time Disgorgement List. Jay Clayton backs off his threat to cap SEC whistleblower awards. Director of Treasury’s anti-money-laundering watchdog calls for Congress to pass corporate transparency legislation. Jay looks at the birth of the corporate integrity monitor. Did they look at petty cash? €84MM goes missing from Football Association of Ireland. Jonathan Rausch. Does better corp governance leader to better corporate agility? Kenneth Lehn. How and why should you manage your corp culture? Jim DeLoach CFIUS report to Congress. Lawyers from Simpson Thatcher. How to manage risk when the BOD is overconfident? Matt Kelly. Patriots caught cheating again. Do they even care? Max Kellerman. On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom had a five part podcast series on the Hughes Hubbard 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. In Part 1, Kevin Abikoff provides and overview of the Alert and explains this year’s theme; in Part 2, Laura Perkins on the year in FCPA; in Part 3, Bryan Sallaman on developments from France; in Part 4 Mark DeBernardis on MDBs and anti-courrption enforcement and in Part 5, Salim Saud on developments in Brazil. Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com. For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to the second week of Hot Mess to Great Success, a podcast dedicated to helping you get all or certain aspects of your life in order. Remember, you don't have to shout your disorganization from the rooftop or hire and expensive coach. Jennifer walks you though her process of getting her business and life together and provides just enough encouragement for you to do the same. This week: Getting organized for success Get the fighter back Rebranding Lessons I learned this week: Checking off vs. doing: What an insane week I had attempting to track my goals and get work done. I was temporarily wrapped up in doing vs. being in the moment. I think I was a bit overwhelmed. I was trying to be a slave to checking off. I realized I'll have to settle into my systems and possibly adjust. Every single time I turned around something else popped up related to any accomplishment. To survive, I took a step back and didn't let this shut me down. I stuck to the plan. Did not account for the short week. This shows me the importance of planning. As an only mom there are many times during the week when I need to be present for my kids at an event. This week is no excepting and I need to do a better job preparing for it. Most importantly, I realized that getting behind creates stress. So, I'm going to build time to get ahead to account for expected and also unexpected events. Jen’s Wins for the Week (important to acknowledge your accomplishments!) Did my MDBs for sales and self. 5 hours of writing my book Bar association cover letter is done Blogging - Video - Slideshare Ceo day for Friday was done Spotify accepted my podcast So here are my three big thoughts for the week: Topic 1: Set Yourself Up for Success Use Google Drive - Google drive is cloud computing that is easy to access with your gmail account. I love it because it allows me to work with clients and staff on documents that are live - we don't have to save a document, send it in email, and send it back to someone. It is super easy to access on computer, laptop and phone. When I have to search for anything I get bogged down - so I heavily use my Google toolbar to save links to documents and folders. Go! Document - this is my document that starts out my day and has links to the Google drive documents, spreadsheets and folders I use most often. Again, helps me to keep moving. OneTab - this is an extension for the Google Toolbar. You can create sets of browser tabs you want to open as a group. For instance, when I blog I want my editorial calendar, website, youtube, and SlideShare. Rather than open each one (which requires me searching for them, I just go into OneTab and open them all at once. When I want to work on Sales, OneTab can open my prospect file, Infusionsoft and KIT system in one click. Topic 2: Get the fighter back. For quite some time I have taken rejection and moved on - not that I accepted it, but I would put any follow-up on the back burner. One area has been my affiliate program - I wasn't fighting for it. I would apply and get rejected and then not question or reapply. This week I contacted GoDaddy to inquire about my rejection - I didn't freak out, I just asked and appealed. And ya know what, I was accepted. What are some things that you have rolled over on? Have they held you back? Topic 3: What is a true rebrand and how you should do it - Rebranding your business or endeavor is a huge undertaking that should be done every 2-3 years. I had a very interesting email from a client on Jan 2nd - they had changed the name of the firm, taken on two partners, and wanted a new logo put in place for their rebrand. I know the process well, as I am going through it on www.Jennifer Gardella.com. Usually creating one thing, like a logo, creates an avalanche of change. A rebrand can be done in one big swoop (and is usually very expen...
Welcome to the second week of Hot Mess to Great Success, a podcast dedicated to helping you get all or certain aspects of your life in order. Remember, you don't have to shout your disorganization from the rooftop or hire and expensive coach. Jennifer walks you though her process of getting her business and life together and provides just enough encouragement for you to do the same. This week: Getting organized for success Get the fighter back Rebranding Lessons I learned this week: Checking off vs. doing: What an insane week I had attempting to track my goals and get work done. I was temporarily wrapped up in doing vs. being in the moment. I think I was a bit overwhelmed. I was trying to be a slave to checking off. I realized I'll have to settle into my systems and possibly adjust. Every single time I turned around something else popped up related to any accomplishment. To survive, I took a step back and didn't let this shut me down. I stuck to the plan. Did not account for the short week. This shows me the importance of planning. As an only mom there are many times during the week when I need to be present for my kids at an event. This week is no excepting and I need to do a better job preparing for it. Most importantly, I realized that getting behind creates stress. So, I'm going to build time to get ahead to account for expected and also unexpected events. Jen's Wins for the Week (important to acknowledge your accomplishments!) Did my MDBs for sales and self. 5 hours of writing my book Bar association cover letter is done Blogging - Video - Slideshare Ceo day for Friday was done Spotify accepted my podcast So here are my three big thoughts for the week: Topic 1: Set Yourself Up for Success Use Google Drive - Google drive is cloud computing that is easy to access with your gmail account. I love it because it allows me to work with clients and staff on documents that are live - we don't have to save a document, send it in email, and send it back to someone. It is super easy to access on computer, laptop and phone. When I have to search for anything I get bogged down - so I heavily use my Google toolbar to save links to documents and folders. Go! Document - this is my document that starts out my day and has links to the Google drive documents, spreadsheets and folders I use most often. Again, helps me to keep moving. OneTab - this is an extension for the Google Toolbar. You can create sets of browser tabs you want to open as a group. For instance, when I blog I want my editorial calendar, website, youtube, and SlideShare. Rather than open each one (which requires me searching for them, I just go into OneTab and open them all at once. When I want to work on Sales, OneTab can open my prospect file, Infusionsoft and KIT system in one click. Topic 2: Get the fighter back. For quite some time I have taken rejection and moved on - not that I accepted it, but I would put any follow-up on the back burner. One area has been my affiliate program - I wasn't fighting for it. I would apply and get rejected and then not question or reapply. This week I contacted GoDaddy to inquire about my rejection - I didn't freak out, I just asked and appealed. And ya know what, I was accepted. What are some things that you have rolled over on? Have they held you back? Topic 3: What is a true rebrand and how you should do it - Rebranding your business or endeavor is a huge undertaking that should be done every 2-3 years. I had a very interesting email from a client on Jan 2nd - they had changed the name of the firm, taken on two partners, and wanted a new logo put in place for their rebrand. I know the process well, as I am going through it on www.Jennifer Gardella.com. Usually creating one thing, like a logo, creates an avalanche of change. A rebrand can be done in one big swoop (and is usually very expen...
Auch dieses Mal gibt es wieder einen bunten Streifzug durch die verschiedensten Themenbereiche der Politik. Samantha bericht zuerst von Schulmilch, der Kritik daran und was sich nun zukünftig nun vielleicht verändern wird. Leonard hat eine Recherche des Polit-Magazins Kontraste mitgebracht, die sich einmal anschaut, wie es denn um die Anwesenheit von MdBs so besteht. Intensiver steht Samantha dann Interpol vor und wir diskutieren darüber, warum wir deren Public-Private-Partnerships eher kritisch sehen. Leonard blickt dann auf fünfzig Jahre Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit in Europa und weshalb das eventuell dennoch ein sehr aktuelles Thema ist.
This session at the 2018 Australasian Aid Conference, presented the recent report by CGD's High-Level Panel on the Future of Multilateral Development Banking, offering a frank assessment of current MDB policies and practices and situating them in the context of new development challenges. It also discussed how MDBs should respond to the new banks and new challenges that call for global collective action and financing of the sort the MDBs are well-suited to provide but have been handicapped in doing so effectively. Presenter: Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global Development Discussants: Susan Engel, University of Wollongong Yasuyuki Sawada, Asian Development Bank The 2018 Australasian Aid Conference was held at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, on 13-14 February, and was organised by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with The Asia Foundation.
The multilateral development banking (MDB) system is regarded as having been remarkably successful—but is the model still fit for purpose? CGD president Nancy Birdsall and senior fellow Scott Morris delve into a new CGD report's recommendations on how to make MDBs more effective.
Lawrence H Summers, former US Treasury Secretary and the CGD Board Chair, explains why the World Bank and the regional multilateral development banks (MDBs) are well-placed to help address some of today's urgent problems, including climate change, pandemics, and the problems of large-scale forced migration.