Opening Remarks as Delivered
- Secretary-General, Excellencies, dear partners, friends,
- First, allow me to reflect on what is on all our minds. We meet at a moment of reckoning. The impact of the war/crisis in the Middle East is substantial, global, and highly asymmetric. The global economic outlook has materially worsened, intensifying challenges, especially for low-income countries.
- We are seeing slower growth and higher inflation across Asia, with pressures now spreading into Africa. Our estimates suggest developing economies could see growth slow by 0.4 to 1.4 percentage points in 2026. While inflation is expected to increase in the same countries between 1.9 to 3.7 percentage points relative to previous expectations.
- Beyond oil and gas, we expect fertilizer prices to rise (~25%) and broader shortages as well—including sulfur, helium, and downstream chemicals. Food price pressures could push an additional 16 million people into food insecurity—primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. And up to 15 million jobs could be at risk overall. This is exacerbated by higher borrowing costs, volatility, and disruptions to tourism, labor, and remittances.
- We are closely monitoring development impacts. We are also coordinating with our partners to maximize institutional responses to the energy and economic impacts. One immediate tool our clients can access is through the WBG’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit system, funding can be diverted from projects to become available within 24h, to help countries, their government, its people, to deal with the current crisis at their discretion.
- Let me be clear about what we bring to this table - and what we are asking of you in return.
- Many developing countries face simultaneous pressures including debt stress and shrinking fiscal space and need to create more and better jobs for fast-growing young populations In the next 10 to 15 years, over one billion young people in developing countries will reach working age, with every right to expect the global system to work for them.
- At the same time, vast pools of private capital are searching for long-term, stable returns that smart development can provide.
- That is why the World Bank Group's work on Financing for Development is anchored in one overarching question: how do we help countries build economies that convert growth into local jobs, unlocking opportunity - at the speed and scale this moment demands?
- The answer is built on three pillars.
- Investment in foundations - water, energy, transport, digital connectivity, health, and education - is the first pillar.
- The second pillar is building business-enabling environments, on which we focused during the WBG/IMF Spring Meetings last week. The private sector generates 90% of jobs in developing economies, but capital flows where rules are transparent, contracts enforceable, and institutions trustworthy. The WBG can provide technical assistance, guarantees, and financing - but no multilateral support can substitute for the policy and regulatory environment each country must create for itself, to attract the private investments your economies need.
- The third pillar is mobilizing private capital at scale. The World Bank Group is the world's largest mobilizer of private finance for emerging markets - $242 billion over the last five years across our institutions, IBRD/IDA, IFC and MIGA. Our Guarantee Platform provided over $8 billion in guarantees in just the second half of 2025, a nearly 30% increase year-on-year, mobilizing more than $10 billion in private capital toward job creation, renewable energy, and small businesses.
- At the same time, the International Development Association (IDA) is a lifeline for 78 low-income countries around the world, delivering up to $100 billion in affordable financing for FY2026-2028 (IDA21) to invest in people, planet and closing the jobs gap. Every dollar entrusted to IDA generates nearly four in development impact. That is not a statistic to be taken lightly: it is a multiplier that changes lives.
- Allow me to zoom in on an example where all three pillars converge; Water, the second area of focus of our Spring Meetings.
- Water underpins public health, food, energy, and climate resilience — yet 4 billion people face water scarcity, 2.1 billion lack safe drinking water, and 3.4 billion lack adequate sanitation. Our new Water Strategy targets water security for 400 million people by 2030, and the Water Forward initiative, launched last week, aims to transform water from a source of risk into a driver of jobs, growth, and resilience.
- In water, and across policy areas, partnerships with countries, MDBs, the UN, civil society, private sector and across development actors, leveraging our complementary strengths, is key to deliver impact with urgency and at scale.
- Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion.
