At the start of the COVID pandemic, we examined how major deteriorations in low-income country (LIC) debt levels could influence the grant funding requirements for IDA, the World Bank’s low-income-country lending arm. IDA provides a mix of concessional credits (which need to be repaid) and grants (w...

Sovereign debt issues for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) were a predictable subject of many conversations at the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Marrakech. Here are our main takeaways on the state of play and how to make progress to address urgent needs amidst slow-moving pr...

Low-income and many emerging market economies face a challenging outlook for maintaining, let alone increasing, health and other social expenditures (as noted in these recent blogs here and here). This predicament is primarily attributed to these nations channeling a growing proportion of their reve...

In an earlier paper (and blog) published in March, we assessed the initial five programs supported by the IMF’s the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), a new financing vehicle designed to help countries address climate change and pandemic preparedness. Among our findings, four stood out. Firs...

The principle of a “just transition” is anchored in the 2015 Paris Agreement. But only in recent years has this principle been fully recognized as an enabler and accelerator of coal power decarbonization efforts. A just transition integrates decarbonization efforts with measures to mitigate the dire...

The IMF should be applauded for implementing the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). That said, it is highly improbable that extending RSF financing to an additional 44 countries will be feasible in the next one or two years as it would require a major change in the mindset of borrowing co...

In April 2022, the IMF board approved the establishment of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) to provide financial support to countries addressing two key long-term structural challenges, climate change and pandemic preparedness. Almost a year late, the board has approved RST-supported pr...