Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:127. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Finance when he last spoke formally with the World Bank President; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49581/23]
View answerTuesday, 14 November 2023
Questions (127)
Written answers
As the Deputy may be aware, Mr Ajay Banga was appointed as 14th president of the World Bank Group on 2nd June 2023. Whilst I have written to Mr Banga to congratulate him on his appointment as World Group Bank President and to wish him success in the role, I have not since had the opportunity to formally meet with him.
The Deputy may be interested to learn that I did briefly meet with Mr Banga on 14th March 2023 shortly after his candidacy for World Bank President had just been announced. During the course of this meeting I took the opportunity to learn about his vision for the World Bank Group and his understanding of the challenges and opportunities related to its global mandate to decrease poverty and promote increased prosperity. I also outlined to Mr Banga Ireland’s development priorities and assured him of our continued support for multilateralism and the World Bank and the important work it undertakes.
This is a time of change for the World Bank and President Banga’s leadership will be instrumental in ensuring that the institution is best reconfigured to address contemporary opportunities and challenges. As the Deputy will be aware, multilateral development banks, including the World Bank Group are currently undergoing a significant process of reform. With compounding crises and reversals of development gains globally, the role of the World Bank Group in addressing transnational challenges had been under increasing scrutiny. Changing global contexts and challenges including the impacts of climate change, pandemics, conflict and migration, all had disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable populations with considerable spillovers across borders.
In October 2022, at IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings, shareholders called on the World Bank Group to produce a roadmap to better address such cross-border challenges, including an ability to respond with more speed and scale. Following this, the World Bank Evolution Roadmap was developed, which focusses on the so called "triple agenda", the World Bank Group's: (i) mission and vision; (ii) operational model; and (iii) financial model.
At its recent Annual Meeting, World Bank shareholders endorsed a new mission for the institution which places equal emphasis on poverty, prosperity, and planet. The new vision seeks a world free of poverty on a livable planet and the new mission is to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet by strengthening inclusion, resilience, and sustainability. In this context the World Bank Group will support its clients in addressing development challenges at country, regional, and global levels, and will pursue outcomes that revolve around eight global challenges:
- biodiversity and nature,
- climate change adaptation and mitigation,
- digitalisation,
- energy access,
- food and nutrition security,
- fragility and conflict,
- pandemic prevention and preparedness, and
- water access and resilience.
World Bank’s operational model reforms were also agreed at the Annual Meeting. These reforms are designed to orient the institution towards delivering on the newly defined vision, enhancing its capacity to progress the global public goods agenda. Work continues in respect of the World Bank’s financial model with a focus on developing additional funding instruments for clients to access and innovative mechanisms to secure the additional finance required to deliver on the World Banks Evolution Roadmap. Work in respect of the financial model is expected to be completed in the early part of 2024.
Ireland has been supportive of the reforms envisaged in the Evolution Roadmap and our engagement in this regard has tried to shape the reforms consistent with best governance practices as well as our development priorities as outlined Ireland’s Development Policy, ‘A Better World’.
I believe President Banga’s leadership will be crucial to the successful delivery on the ambition of the Evolution Roadmap. I hope to meet with the President and his leadership team in the new year to learn about progress on the Evolution reforms and assure him of Ireland’s continued support.