In the face of two crises—COVID-19 and climate change—the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund launched a High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth today to help secure a strong recovery and set a path for green, resilient, and inclusive development over the coming decade.
The HLAG will be jointly led by Mari Pangestu, Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank; Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Director, Strategy, Policy and Review Department, International Monetary Fund; and Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics. It aims to advance understanding of key policy and institutional issues that will inform a response to multiple interconnected challenges – the two crises, which are exacerbating poverty and inequality, as well as structural weaknesses that existed before the pandemic.
Comprised of experts from research institutions, private sector, and governments, in addition to senior staff of the World Bank Group and IMF, the HLAG will propose ideas and frameworks for strategic and practical national and global action. These would contribute towards a sustainable and inclusive recovery, as well as setting the agenda for a sustained transformation based on new perspectives and models of growth and development.
“The poor and most vulnerable have been hit hardest by COVID-19, as well as climate change, and other challenges. I look forward to this High-Level Advisory Group offering new ideas for impactful action, both at country-level and globally, to foster green, resilient and inclusive development and help developing countries get back on track to reduce poverty and inequality,” said David Malpass, President, World Bank Group.
“The world faces two huge crises—the pandemic, and the climate emergency—that demand radical and coordinated action. Through policy analysis and practical proposals, the High-Level Advisory Group will play a key role in this effort, and I look forward to this important collaboration,” said Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.
Over the next eighteen months, the HLAG will marshal the combined and complementary policy experience and analytical strengths of its members to set out practical proposals in two phases:
- First, focus on the immediate challenge of a sustainable and inclusive recovery to inform the processes and meetings in 2021 leading up to the G20 Summit in Rome (October) and the COP26 in Glasgow (November).
- Second, deepen the analyses and formulation of actions for sustained transformation in 2022.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has committed over $125 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, the fastest and largest crisis response in its history. The financing is helping more than 100 countries strengthen pandemic preparedness, protect the poor and jobs, and
The IMF has been at the forefront of the international response to the pandemic, and recently published a $50 billion roadmap to accelerate the equitable distribution of health tools to help end the health crisis that has devastated lives and livelihoods. Since the start of the pandemic, the Fund has approved over $109 billion in financing to 84 countries of which 52 are low-income countries. The Fund has also provided capacity development to 160 countries during this period. In addition, debt relief under the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust CCRT has been extended to 29 of the Fund’s poorest and most vulnerable members reaching almost $700 million for eligible debt service falling due to the IMF through October 15, 2021.
