‘MDBs need to spend $3 tn extra’

livemint.com:

GANDHINAGAR : Multilateral development banks (MDBs) will need to increase their annual spending by $3 trillion by 2030, including $1.8 trillion for additional climate action and $1.2 trillion for achieving other sustainable development goals (SDGs), according to the recommendations of a committee headed by N.K. Singh and Lawrence Summers. “The international development finance system should be designed to support this spending by providing $500 billion in additional annual official external financing by 2030, of which one-third is concessional funds and non-debt-creating financing and two-thirds in the form of non-concessional official lending," the report said.

Singh and Summers are co-conveners of the expert group on strengthening MDBs. While Singh is a former Indian civil servant and economist who served as the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission of India, Summers is an American economist who served as the US treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. G20 members will now discuss the recommendations of the report.

As the current holder of the G20 rotating presidency, India aims to utilize the forum to enhance the effectiveness of MDBs for developing nations. “It should also help mobilize and catalyze an equivalent part of private capital, implying a total additional external financing package of $1 trillion," the report said. “MDBs should provide an incremental $260 billion of additional annual official financing, of which $200 billion in non-concessional lending, and help mobilize and catalyze most of the associated private finance," it added.