The Law, Justice and Development (LJD) Week is an annual conference organized by the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank in collaboration with partners within and outside the World Bank Group (WBG). It convenes participants from across the globe to meet and share knowledge, as well as to network and strengthen relationships for collaboration and collective action, in the sphere of law, justice and development. The mission of the WBG is to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. To achieve sustainable, durable and inclusive development, the WBG works in partnership with other development finance institutions (DFIs), international organizations, the public and private sectors, academia and civil society.
The theme of this year’s conference is Partnering for Impact: Enabling and Mobilizing the Private Sector for Sustainable Development. DFIs have an indispensable role to play in addressing global polycrises that undermine many of the development gains made to date and threaten most of the urgent priorities going forward, including issues of inflation, debt sustainability, supply chains, food insecurity, pandemic preparedness, gender inequity, fragility, conflict and violence.
The scale of these challenges is beyond the capacity of the public sector alone and requires both private finance for private sector investments and private finance for public sector spending. As noted by the newly elected President of the WBG, Ajay Banga, in his message to staff on his first day on the job, “the demands of this polycrisis world are too great for governments, philanthropy or the DFIs by themselves - we have to work with purpose to bring in the private sector in a meaningful way.”
Scaling-up must include both private finance for private sector investments and private finance for public sector spending. Accordingly, WBG will bring renewed focus on (a) facilitating private capital enabling activities and capital investment pipelines by
- improving business enabling conditions for private sector activities through improved and dedicated diagnostics, and stepped-up, programmatic support for reforms (rule of law, regulations, governance and targeted sector specific reforms),
- strengthening institutions and systems by supporting market-creating reforms and capacity-building and using WBG convening power to share knowledge and innovative collaborations and to offer technical assistance and advisory services.
This year, the LJD Week 2023 will bring together leading thinkers, practitioners and policymakers to examine how the various development partners can optimize their collaboration with particular emphasis on enabling and mobilizing the private sector. Topics to be discussed include Catalyzing Private Investment; Climate Action and Finance; Blended Finance; Policy Framework for Private Sector Action; Improvement of Partnership with the Private Sector; strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions.
The LJD Week will be held November 13-15, 2023, at the WBG Headquarters in Washington, DC. Participants may join in person and online.
Further details to follow.