The Financing of Global Public Goods by Multilateral Development Banks

Pauline FOURNEL * Assistant Director of the Multilateral Development and Climate Financing Office, French Department of the Treasury. Contact: pauline.fournel@dgtresor.gouv.fr.

Julien VELUD ** Assistant Director of the Multilateral Development and Climate Financing Office, French Department of the Treasury. Contact: julien.velud@dgtresor.gouv.fr.

The definition and list of global public goods, which are undoubtedly narrower than those relating to global challenges, do not enjoy consensus among the various multilateral development banks. Since the Addis Ababa conference in 2015, MDBs have committed to financing the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the achievement of which partly depends on creating and protecting global public goods. While most MDBs already finance certain global public goods, including climate, and have a mandate compatible with financing them, it seems necessary to strengthen their action in favour of GPGs through new approaches, such as systematically integrating GPGs into MDB activities and using financial and non-financial incentives in favour of GPGs. The Summit for a New Global Financial Pact held June 22-23 202 3 in Paris called for MDBs to begin better financing these GPGs, in synergy with the development goals at the heart of the MDB actions, such as the fight against poverty. The G20 is also pursuing this agenda of having MDBs better respond to GPGs. It is in this context as well that the World Bank is developing an evolution roadmap to be discussed at its next Annual Meeting in October 2023.