The World Bank and global public goods

There have been two significant innovations to the World Bank’s approach since 1944: the creation of “concessional” instruments to ease the financing terms facing aid recipients; and the addition of a private sector financing arm to expand the bank’s remit beyond governments. While this model remains relevant, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given momentum to calls for reform. These reform ideas seek to embrace some aspects of the multilateral financial model while calling for a significant shift in mandates and modes of operation. But any repurposing of the multilateral architecture must grapple with existing constraints facing donor governments as well as developing country governments. This chapter considers the evolution of the World Bank’s financial and operational models over time. It assesses how well the post-2018 bank is positioned to respond to a new era of global challenges, and what changes are necessary to better meet these challenges.