To help secure a strong recovery and set a path for green, resilient, and inclusive development over the coming decade, the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have launched a High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on sustainable and inclusive recovery and growth.
This comes in the face of two global crises, COVID-19 and climate change, and aims to advance the understanding of key policy and institutional issues that would inform a response to the multiple interconnected challenges, which are exacerbating poverty and inequality, as well as structural weaknesses that existed previously.
The advisory group, comprising experts from research institutions, the private sector, and governments, in addition to senior staff of the World Bank Group and IMF, will propose ideas and frameworks for strategic and practical national and global action.
The financial organisations said this will not only contribute towards a sustainable and inclusive recovery, but also in setting the agenda for a sustained transformation based on new perspectives and models of growth and development.
Speaking on the initiative, President, World Bank Group, David Malpass, said: “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.”
On her part, Managing Director, IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said: “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.”
Meanwhile, HLAG will be jointly led by Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank, Mari Pangestu; Director, Strategy, Policy and Review Department, IMF, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu; and Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics.
Over the next 18 months, the HLAG is expected to marshal the combined and complementary policy experience and analytical strengths of its members to set out practical proposals in two phases.
The first phase would 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), while the second phase would deepen the analyses and formulation of actions for sustained transformation in 2022.
The HLAG experts include Philippe Aghion, Centennial Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, at the Collège de France, and INSEAD; Montek Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India; Masood Ahmed, President, Centre for Global Development; and Timothy Besley, School Professor of Economics and Political Science.
Others include Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science; Amar Bhattacharya, Senior Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Development; Laurence Boone, Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department, OECD; Ottmar Edenhofer, and Professor of the Economics of Climate Change, Technical University of Berlin, and Director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research.
Also included are Gita Gopinath, Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the IMF; Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Joaquim Levy, Director for Economic Strategy and Market Relations at Banco Safra S.A., and former Finance Minister, Brazil; Zhu Min, former Deputy Managing Director, IMF; Carmen Reinhart, Vice President of Development Economics and World Bank Group Chief Economist, among others
