- A leaked draft of the World Bank’s “Evolution Roadmap” has revealed a relatively unambitious and noncommittal 2023 reform agenda.
- The document sets out the World Bank’s proposed timeline for 2023, including tweaks to its vision, operating model, and financing capacity. But it doesn’t have a sense of what the Bank needs to become, in order to resolve the current polycrisis.
- An increased focus on global challenges, such as climate change and pandemics, is at the heart of the “evolution,” which has the potential to scale needed finance in developing countries. However, the Roadmap presents more questions than answers when explaining where additional resources should come from to support this.
What to look out for as the World Bank navigates the Evolution Roadmap
The document, “Evolving the World Bank Group’s Mission, Operations, and Resources: A Roadmap,” lays out a year-long timeline for consultation, workshops, and evaluation in response to a request from shareholders to explore reforms. Adoption of proposals is slated for the Bank’s Annual Meetings in October 2023, allotting ten months for discussion – meaning implementation will likely be pushed out to 2024 and beyond.
Notably, the Roadmap recommends further integrating global public goods into its “Twin Goal” mandate, recognizing that increased concessional lending to large, high-emitting Middle-Income Countries (MICs) will be critical to addressing climate change. This is a crucial development, recommended by E3G and CSIS in our co-authored Shadow Roadmap briefing paper, published last month.
Potentially the most debated point will be the issue of how to pay for increased lending. The Roadmap lays out options and instruments but hints that the Bank’s preference is a capital increase, rather than immediately adopting the G20 CAF recommendations. E3G’s Public Banks team weighs in here on why that’s frankly not the best positioning for an ambitious outcome: The World Bank reform roadmap is a plan for a plan – E3G
While many of the proposed technical reforms are intriguing, the Roadmap doesn’t commit to adopting anything just yet. This is a missed opportunity and clearly intentional. It’s an opening bid consultation document. Therefore shareholder engagement and consensus will be crucial to driving the reform process.
Available for comment
Sonia Dunlop (EN, NL, FR, IT), Programme Leader, Public Banks
m: +44 7970 795 278 | sonia.dunlop@e3g.org
Franklin Steves (EN, RU, SP, FR), Senior Policy Advisor, Public Banks
m: +44 7484 815 434 | franklin.steves@e3g.org
Danny Scull (EN), Policy Advisor, Sustainable Finance
m: +1 (301) 787 0942 | danny.scull@e3g.org
Notes to Editors
- E3G is an independent climate change think tank with a global outlook. We work on the frontier of the climate landscape, tackling the barriers and advancing the solutions to a safe climate. Our goal is to translate climate politics, economics and policies into action. About – E3G
- For further enquiries email press@e3g.org or phone +44 (0)7783 787 863
