US President Joe Biden is leading a major new initiative with G20 partners to fundamentally reshape and scale up the World Bank, the White House said Saturday.
The initiative aims to allow the World Bank to effectively deliver poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth, while better addressing global challenges that can undermine the achievement of those goals.
“Since the Biden-Harris Administration launched this initiative last fall, significant progress has been made,” the White House said in a statement.
“Thanks to the further leadership of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a growing coalition of countries has come together to reform the World Bank’s mission and vision, incentives, operational model, and financing capacity.”
The statement said that with measures implemented and identified under the G20’s Capital Adequacy Review, the multilateral development bank system could unlock $200bn in new lending capacity over the next decade.
In addition, President Biden nominated Ajay Banga to lead and revitalize the World Bank, and fully deliver on the promise of this initiative.
The White House said that to amplify the impact of the ongoing reforms to the World Bank and advance progress at a global level, Biden has asked Congress for support that would unlock new concessional World Bank financing by more than $25bn just from U.S. action.
This includes the Global Challenges Boost, under which Biden has asked Congress for funding to unlock $25bn in new International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) concessional lending capacity and provide borrowers more headroom so that they can address global challenges.
The new lending capacity will enable the World Bank to better support developing countries by providing more resources on better terms and helping countries pursue more ambitious reforms and development projects with regional and global benefits.
The statement said that the World Bank must continue to pay sufficient attention to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries, which are facing multiple, compounding crises, including those stemming from global challenges.
President Biden has requested from Congress funding to provide a $1bn contribution to support the International Development Association’s (IDA) immediate crisis response in the world’s poorest countries.
In New Delhi, President Biden rallied G20 partners to agree to collectively mobilize more headroom and concessional finance to boost the World Bank’s capacity to support low- and middle-income countries.
“We are aiming for our joint contributions to deliver a one-time boost to IBRD equivalent to three times the World Bank’s annual non-concessional lending volume, and to double IDA’s crisis lending capacity,” the statement said.
“This initiative will make the World Bank a stronger institution that is able to provide resources at the scale and speed needed to tackle global challenges and address the urgent needs of the poorest countries.”
The White House statement concluded: “President Biden will continue to call on G20 Leaders to commit to further progress on evolving the World Bank and other multilateral development banks over the next year, and he will push for concrete results by the Rio de Janeiro Summit under Brazil’s G20 Presidency in 2024.”
