Dr Farwa Sial, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at Eurodad, analyses the latest developments in the EU's Global Gateway.

In 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the EU Global Gateway in her State of the Union speech. She claimed it was the EU’s new flagship strategy, investing in infrastructure to counter the influence of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. One year later, a new Eurodad and Counter Balance report reveals that the Global Gateway lacks a clear development mandate.

The 6th European Union-African Union Summit was held in Brussels last month. This event - which is held every three years is designed to offer a separate platform for dialogue and setting a common political agenda, along with the existing set of policies between the members of the EU and AU.

On 1 January a new development branch of the European Investment Bank (EIB) went into operation. This was approved by the bank’s Board of Directors in September 2021, following relatively limited conversations on how to improve the European architecture for development. This branch aims to reorganise the EIB’s activities outside the European Union and enhance engagement with external partners through the provision of targeted strategies and services. 

The proposed increase in the International Development Association's much criticised private sector window ignores civil society's concerns that it lacks adequate safeguards and reporting mechanisms to ensure that this is the best use of IDA resources. In this blog, we set out the case for redirecting these resources towards public investment

On 19-20 October, the 2021 Finance in Common Summit (FiC) brought together more than 500 Public Development Banks (PDBs) from around the world. Following the first FiC summit last year, this year’s summit was also focused on the role of PDBs in mobilising financial resources to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. Key themes of this year’s summit included the goal of transforming food systems, adaptation to climate change and the preservation of biodiversity.

Today, AFRODAD, the Bretton Woods Project and Eurodad issued a joint statement ahead of the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) October Forum, which will address critical issues regarding ongoing discussion over IDA20 replenishment. This comes ahead of a meeting of IDA Deputies later this month.

As long as the World Bank's International Development Association can be an important source of recovery funds for the poorest economies, those resources must be used effectively. This will require closing the IDA's Private Sector Window and instead providing resources directly to governments.

This blog was originally published by Project Syndicate.

While G7 leaders argue that they "aim for a step change" in their approach to infrastructure financing, a market-led approach is still at the heart of the G7’s plan to "build back better" for the world. In the following blog, María José Romero, Farwa Sial and Flora Sonkin analyse the proposals, the risks and an alternative way of thinking about infrastructure.

The Summit on the Financing of African Economies convened by the French President, Emmanuel Macron last week was mostly a rhetorical exercise in supporting Africa’s post-pandemic recovery and resilience-building.