World Bank & IMF launch High-Level Advisory Group to advance green, resilient, inclusive economic revitalization in coming decade

On June 15, 2021, in the face of two global crises—COVID-19 and climate change—the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund launched a High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth to help secure a strong recovery and set a path for green, resilient, and inclusive economic revitalization over the coming decade.

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,” said David Malpass, President, World Bank Group.

If it is indeed focused on practical solutions, as Malpass claims, it could be a perfect complement to the work of certified Revitalization & Resilience Facilitators, since the missing element causing the failure of most such initiatives is the lack of a strategic process for successful delivery.

The HLAG will be jointly led by Mari Pangestu, Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank; Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Director, Strategy, Policy and Review Department, International Monetary Fund; and Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics. It aims to advance understanding of key policy and institutional issues that will inform a response to multiple interconnected challenges – the two crises, which are exacerbating poverty and inequality, as well as structural weaknesses that existed before the pandemic.

Comprising experts from research institutions, private sector, and governments, in addition to senior staff of the World Bank Group and IMF, the HLAG will propose ideas and frameworks for strategic and practical national and global action. These would contribute towards a sustainable and inclusive recovery, as well as setting the agenda for a sustained transformation based on new perspectives and models of growth and development.

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,” said Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.

Over the next eighteen months, the HLAG will marshal the combined and complementary policy experience and analytical strengths of its members to set out practical proposals in two phases:

  • First, 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); and
  • Second, deepen the analyses and formulation of actions for sustained transformation in 2022.

HLAG experts include:

  • Philippe Aghion , Centennial Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, at the Collège de France, and at INSEAD;
  • Montek Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India;Masood Ahmed, President, Center for Global Development;
  • Timothy Besley, School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science;
  • Amar Bhattacharya, Senior Fellow, Center for Sustainable Development; Laurence Boone, Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department, OECD;
  • Ottmar Edenhofer, Professor of the Economics of Climate Change, Technical University of Berlin and Director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research;
  • Gita Gopinath, Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the IMF;
  • Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution;
  • Eliana La Ferrara, Fondazione Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics, Bocconi University;
  • 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;
  • Maria Ramos, Chair, AngloGold Ashanti Limited and former CEO of Absa Group Limited;
  • Carmen Reinhart, Vice President of Development Economics and World Bank Group Chief Economist; and
  • Andres Velasco, Professor of Public Policy and Dean, School of Public Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Photo of Barcelona neighborhood by Maria Teresa Martínez from Pixabay.

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