World Leaders and Development Banks Coordinate Investments to Fight Pandemic, Poverty and Climate Change

Heads of state, finance ministers and 450 public banks conclude two days of meetings for the second "Finance in Common Summit" in Rome. The summit focuses on agricultural development and previous commitments on COVID recovery, development and climate policies.

"The summit convenes world leaders and banks to align $2.3 trillion, or ten percent of all global investments in common development goals," noted Eric LeCompte, a United Nations finance expert and Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. "Coordinating lending and aid can help developing countries respond to the worsening health and economic crises spurred by the pandemic."

Increasing agriculture investments, as millions face starvation and food shortages, is a central theme of the summit. Ahead of a November conference on climate, banks assess their contributions on climate policies.

"Development banks must make the case that they can increase financing for poor countries by accepting donations from wealthy countries," shared LeCompte. "In August, wealthy countries received $400 billion of an emergency IMF currency that can be shared with development banks for pandemic and climate response efforts."

The IMF created $650 billion of emergency currency, or Special Drawing Rights, to help countries respond to the pandemic. The G20 and IMF are working on processes for wealthy countries to disburse some of their currency holdings to poor countries.