World Bank Proposes $100 Billion Annual Lending Capacity For Climate Change And Poverty Alleviation

The Development Committee of the World Bank has proposed creating more than $100 billion in annual lending capacity over the next decade. The goal of this fund is to promote a more inclusive agenda for climate change and poverty alleviation.

The G20 finance ministers and central bankers will meet under the presidency of India in Marrakech, next week. In preparation for this meeting, the joint ministerial committee of the boards of governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has endorsed these recommendations, according to ET.

This committee was informed by the Independent Expert Group, which was co-chaired by N.K. Singh and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

The Group has already submitted its second volume on the subject to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and will make a detailed presentation to the G20 in Marrakech.

The Group has also proposed a roadmap and detailed plan to reform multilateral development banks (MDB) such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. This plan includes proposals to encourage MDBs to harness private capital and increase their financial capacity.

The IEG has stated that $3 trillion is needed to meet sustainable development goals by 2030, which includes a tripling of financing from all MDBs. The proposed measures also respond to the innovative fundraising mechanisms proposed in the report of an Independent Expert Group, commissioned by the G20.

The Development Committee paper states that these measures, along with a "preferencing" approach, would make MDBs more aware of the needs of the Global South and better suited to meet those needs.

The New Delhi Declaration, adopted by G20 leaders in September, agreed to reform MDBs to make them larger, better, and more cognizant of Global South needs.