It is common knowledge that the success of sustainable development rests on Emerging & Developing economies’ capacity to invest in strategic sectors, first among them Infrastructure. It is also well-known that the required private participation will not happen at scale without the full support and preparatory work of Multilateral Development Banks, a dimension encapsulated in the concept of “Blended Finance”. But MDBs have constraints too, linked with their limited capital base and have historically prioritized keeping their AAA credit ratings, which prevent them from deploying the volume of financing support required to eventually reach SDGs. That’s where innovative thinking can help: the Independent Review of MDBs’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks report, overseen by the G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group, was presented at the recent G20 FMCBG Bali meeting in July ( where LTIIA took part in the second edition of the G20 Investors Dialogue, co-organised by the OECD, the D20 LTIC and the GI Hub ) and is now publicly available at https://g20.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CAF-Review-Report.pdf. 

As emphasized by the GIH, the report outlines solutions and a way forward to boost the investing capacity of MDBs in emerging and developing economies. This will allow for a greater level of investment in sustainable infrastructure to assist in addressing pressing global development challenges. Several recommendations in particular target the infrastructure sector, like the call for define MDB risk appetites prioritizing shareholder-specified limits rather than simply relying on credit agencies perspective, as well as the need to scale up the transfer of risks embedded in MDB loan portfolios to private sector counterparties by accelerating the development of funded and unfunded instruments. The report also encourages more access and transparency to MDB data, like the Global Emerging Markets (GEMs) database, an old request from private lenders to infrastructure.

 It is now upon MDBs shareholders, with the support of the G20, to implement and take forward the key findings of the report .