Past Event

Sussex Development Lectures

Development banks as a route to building regional and global solidarities

9 November 2022 16:00–17:30

IDS Convening Space and Zoom

What is the future of multilateralism? The UK’s recent Strategy for International Development announced a reduction in funding for the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, instead indicating a move to bilateral spending that will ‘focus funding on UK priorities’. Yet universal challenges such as climate change and global health require coordinated international responses, linking local and national action with global level commitments and solidarities.

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Multilateral development banks have the potential to play a leading role in crisis response and global development; indeed, they exist for precisely this purpose. While these global institutions are well-placed to address the global and cross-border challenges we face – from the climate crisis to public health crises to violent conflict – it’s widely accepted that reforms are needed to fulfil this potential. What might this reform look like? How can large multilateral institutions work with local actors to build regional and global solidarities?

In this Sussex Development Lecture, Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Scientist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group, will discuss key findings from a recent project exploring solutions to an array of issues pertaining to the future of multilateralism and global development. Global problems require global solutions, yet each generation needs to make its own case for a renewed multilateralism – in our time, this means finding collective responses to environmental crises, rising inequalities, regional conflicts, and future pandemic threats.

Speaker

  • Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Scientist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School

Discussants

Chair

How to watch

Register to attend in person

Register to watch on Zoom

Covid-19 protocol

The wearing of masks is voluntary, and we encourage those who would like to wear masks to do so. Surgical masks are available in many of the meeting rooms and from the reception counter.

If you are planning to attend an event and would like to request that others wear a mask, you can either contact us in advance at [email protected], or speak to an IDS representative on the day.

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If you are feeling unwell or have any Covid-19 symptoms, please do not come into the IDS building.

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