World Bank should make more efforts to solve global problems-Yellen
2023.02.09 15:09
World Bank should make more efforts to solve global problems-Yellen
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged the World Bank to plan “bolder and more imaginative” actions to address global issues like climate change while still providing assistance to specific developing nations.
Yellen said that countries needed the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to change quickly because global poverty was getting worse before the COVID-19 pandemic even started.
She stated, “We need these vital institutions to change along with the world’s change.” Without addressing the global challenges that we all face, sustained progress on poverty alleviation and economic development is simply not possible in today’s world.”
During her recent trip to Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa, Yellen said that the economies of those three nations were impacted by fragility, conflict, and climate change.
She stated that the current model of multilateral development banks allows nations to borrow money for domestic investments, but that this is “insufficient” for problems like pandemics and climate change, which frequently affect the poorest nations the most.
Following Yellen’s remarks, a spokesperson for the World Bank stated that the lender values shareholder support “for finding ways to ramp up development finance to meet global challenges such as climate change, fragility, and pandemics.” We see this as a sign that the global community recognizes the World Bank’s responsiveness and effectiveness over time, and we always welcome new ideas.
According to Yellen, the World Bank’s evolution roadmap served as a point of discussion, but more work was required, including a vision that gave global issues top priority in its dual objectives of reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity.
According to Yellen, the bank also needed to come up with the right incentives, such as lowering investment costs, in order to make these kinds of projects financially viable. She stated, “The global community should help bear their cost because the global community benefits from these investments.”
She stated that the Treasury was requesting the Bank to identify concessional resources, or loans with low or no interest, to assist nations in addressing global challenges.
She stated that these resources could aid in the decommissioning of coal plants and provide protection for workers who have been laid off during the transition to clean energy.
She also stated that the bank needed to increase its financial capacity and acquire new diagnostic tools in order to identify global challenges affecting development.
She said, “The Bank must be bolder and more imaginative in its operational approach,” and she also said that sub-national entities like cities could play a larger role.
Yellen stated that a report that was prepared the previous year for the Group of Twenty major economies contained some promising ideas, such as piloting the issuance of subordinated debt instruments or securing portfolios in the private sector.
Yellen stated that a stronger mobilization of domestic resources and private capital would also be essential.
She stated that over the past four months, significant progress had been made on the issue, and Washington was working closely with India, the G20 president for this year, to coordinate.
