The World Bank evolution roadmap is a response to a request from World Bank shareholders at the 2022 Annual Meetings (the G7+) for an explanation of how the World Bank will respond to the current deteriorating global economic context, including by enhancing its focus on ‘global public goods’. On January 13th the World Bank published the draft “Evolving the World Bank Group’s Mission, Operations, and Resources: A Roadmap”.

The Bridgetown initiative is led by the Barbados government and its PM Mia Mottley. The 2022 Bridgetown Agenda for the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture aims to increase the resources available to addressing immediate needs that the combination of crises is creating (cost of living, debt and climate), but also argues that there’s need to “lay the path toward a new financial system that drives financial resources towards climate action and SDGs”. It includes proposals to provide emergency liquidity, expand multilateral lending to governments by US$1 trillion, activate private sector savings for climate mitigation and fund reconstruction after a climate disaster through new multilateral mechanisms and a call for collective action to form a coalition of like-minded leaders. 

Download the document