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10/13/2023

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the Multilateral Development Bank Evolution Roundtable in …

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the
Multilateral Development Bank Evolution Roundtable in
Marrakech, Morocco
October 13, 2023

As Prepared for Delivery
Good morning. And welcome to the Multilateral Development Bank Evolution Roundtable. I
am looking forward to a robust discussion with all of you today.
We are at an important moment for the World Bank. One year ago, just ahead of the Annual
Meetings, I issued an urgent call for the evolution of the MDB system to better meet the
challenges we face in an interconnected world.
As we heard yesterday at the Development Committee Plenary, we now have a broad coalition
of shareholders standing by the World Bank as it evolves to deliver better and with a greater
sense of urgency for low-income and emerging market nations.
Bold action is needed – both to protect against eroding past development gains and to drive
progress on new development opportunities.
The World Bank evolution reforms that we have collectively pursued over the last year are a
big step in the right direction and Ajayʼs arrival has certainly sparked a fire to accelerate this
work. But there is still more to be done.
The United States is seeking to do its part. Our proposal to scale up World Bank concessional
financing capacity reflects our commitment to evolution and our recognition that it will not
succeed without su icient attention to the immediate needs of the poorest and most
vulnerable countries.
President Biden has requested funding from our Congress for this proposal.
It includes a guarantee to the new IBRD Portfolio Guarantee Platform that would enable $25
billion in new lending capacity and a large grant to the Global Public Goods Fund to buy down
the cost of that new capacity to incentivize countries to invest in addressing global
challenges.
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10/13/2023

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the Multilateral Development Bank Evolution Roundtable in …

It also includes a $1 billion grant for IDAʼs Enhanced Crisis Response window to support crisis
response in IDA countries and limit the decline in IDA commitments over the last two years of
the current replenishment.
I was encouraged by G20 Leaders voicing support for this e ort in the September
communique and thank Germany for your announcement on hybrid capital. I encourage others
to join us.
There is plenty of work le to do -- the hard work of implementing the reforms weʼve
adopted, completing the reforms that are already underway, and starting work on the longerterm and harder reforms that have yet to be taken up.
And we are also extending this evolution agenda to the regional development banks.
Ultimately, we will have done well when each institution is delivering better and faster, and
when the MDBs are also working better together as a system.
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