Author: Development Matters

Green transition

COP28: Prioritising children in the fight against climate change

By Shruti Agarwal, Senior Climate Adviser with Save the Children

Children are looking to world leaders to demonstrate brave leadership. As one child from India told us, “It’s not children’s job to clean the mess spread by their elders.” But they are not just passive victims. Children have distinct capacities to contribute to climate action within their communities, countries and globally. Yet their rights, specific needs and perspectives have been overlooked in climate discussion. This must change. Continue reading COP28: Prioritising children in the fight against climate change

Development Matters
How to maximise the benefits of the LDC Services Waiver
New social contract

How to maximise the benefits of the LDC Services Waiver

By Swati Sharma, independent trade law and policy professional; and Neil Balchin, Economic Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat, London

Services is the fastest growing segment of international trade. Yet, while service exports from least developed countries (LDCs) grew by 9% in 2021, they still accounted for less than 1% of global services trade.

Recognising the potential for trade in services to create jobs and accelerate development, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) adopted a Waiver in 2011 to support LDC service suppliers.

In addition to non-market access preferences, the Waiver enables developed and developing countries to grant direct-market-access preferences to LDCs that would otherwise be inconsistent with the most-favoured-nation rules of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services. In response, LDCs collectively identified their export interests under the Waiver. Continue reading How to maximise the benefits of the LDC Services Waiver

Development Matters
Nation building successes and failures matter to the EU and OECD
New social contract

Nation building successes and failures matter to the EU and OECD

By Dominic Rohner, Professor of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of Lausanne, and Research Fellow, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

From Syria to Libya, Somalia to Yemen, today more than 50 nations are categorised as fragile states. With a number sitting very close to the EU’s borders, it’s impossible to argue that these countries and the difficulties they face exist in a vacuum from the rest of the world.

As conflict, extremism, and poverty increase due to states falling into “failed” or “failing” categories – the ripple effects are not only tragic for the domestic population but also felt way beyond their borders.

It follows that, to help the EU achieve greater integration and assist its institutions bolster fragile neighbours and partner states, we need a greater understanding of what makes some states thrive, while others slide from fragility to outright collapse. Continue reading Nation building successes and failures matter to the EU and OECD

Development Matters
Quota Reform is an Opportunity for the IMF to Restore Its Legitimacy
Reviving multilateralism

Quota reform is an opportunity for the IMF to restore its legitimacy

By William N. Kring, Marilou Uy, Rakesh Mohan and Haihong Gao1

As the global economy confronts a myriad of challenges, the prospects for long-term growth and economic recovery look increasingly bleak.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the center of the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), is the pre-eminent multilateral institution tasked with addressing challenges that threaten global financial stability. Unfortunately, the lending capacity of the IMF has not kept pace with the global economy or global trade flows, and quota shares of emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) are increasingly misaligned with their role in the global economy.

Continue reading “Quota reform is an opportunity for the IMF to restore its legitimacy”
Development Matters
Currency risk climate finance development
Development finance, Green transition

Currency risk is stifling climate finance for developing countries. It should – and can – be mitigated

By Ruurd Brouwer, CEO, TCX, and Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Private-sector funding will be essential for raising the trillions of dollars needed to finance climate-change abatement and adaption projects in emerging and developing countries. The question is: will that finance be forthcoming? 

Continue reading “Currency risk is stifling climate finance for developing countries. It should – and can – be mitigated”
Development Matters
Climate change risks Latin America development matters
Green transition, Latin America and the Caribbean

Cascading climate risks are a threat Latin America must take seriously

By Will Nichols, Head of Climate and Resilience Risk, Verisk Maplecroft

Record temperatures, wildfires, storms and floods have all made headlines in 2023 as the world braces for a new climate reality. But the secondary impacts of these climate shocks cannot be ignored.

Governments and business organisations in Latin America must ask difficult questions about the relationships between climate impacts and secondary risks, including:

Continue reading “Cascading climate risks are a threat Latin America must take seriously”
Development Matters
Participants of the Ultra-Poor Graduation program utilize technology to ensure financial literacy best practices in Rangpur, Bangladesh (BRAC 2018)
New social contract

Opinion: The World Bank’s Evolution Is a Chance to Accelerate the End of Extreme Poverty

By Shameran Abed, Executive Director, BRAC International and Joanne Carter, Executive Director, RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund

The World Bank is evolving, but can it widen its mandate without losing focus on ending extreme poverty?

Cascading crises that include COVID-19, the Ukraine war, rising inflation, and climate extremes are making the fight against poverty ever more complex. Presented with this shifting landscape, we must support the World Bank’s efforts to evolve to better support governments in driving sustainable development.

However, in a world where lack of prioritisation over recent years has already led to a slowing of poverty reduction, the Bank must ensure its evolutions do not result in losing further momentum towards this goal.

Continue reading “Opinion: The World Bank’s Evolution Is a Chance to Accelerate the End of Extreme Poverty”
Development Matters
SDG summit-development matters
Français, Reviving multilateralism

Une ambition renouvelée pour la coopération pour le développement à l’OCDE

Par María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Directrice de la coopération pour le développement à l’OCDE

Read this blog in English

Le récent sommet de Paris pour un Nouveau Pacte Financier Mondial a tourné une page de la coopération pour le développement écrite en 1944 à Bretton Woods. Créés alors, la Banque internationale pour la reconstruction et le développement (BIRD) et le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) avaient un champ d’action limité pour un monde qui comptait moins d’une centaine de pays indépendants. Les priorités étaient la reconstruction de l’Europe et l’équilibre des balances de paiements, comme en témoigne le prêt pionnier de la BIRD à la France. Depuis, le monde a considérablement évolué, avec plus de 150 pays aspirant au statut de pays à revenu élevé, plus de 650 millions de personnes en situation d’extrême pauvreté, et des défis urgents liés au changement climatique et à la perte de biodiversité.

Continue reading “Une ambition renouvelée pour la coopération pour le développement à l’OCDE”
Development Matters
SDG summit-development matters
Reviving multilateralism

A renewed ambition for development co-operation at the OECD

By María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Director, Development Co-operation directorate, OECD

The recent Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact turned a page of the development co-operation history that was written in Bretton Woods in 1944. Back then, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were founded with a limited scope, catering to a world of fewer than a hundred independent countries. The focus was on Europe’s reconstruction and balance of payments, illustrated by France’s pioneering IBRD loan. However, the landscape has drastically changed, with over 150 countries striving for high-income status, more than 650 million people in extreme poverty, and urgent challenges stemming from climate change and biodiversity loss.

Continue reading “A renewed ambition for development co-operation at the OECD”
Development Matters