Multilateral Development Banks in the Post-COVID Era: Old Challenges and New Opportunities
During the coronavirus pandemic, the multilateral development banks faced unprecedented global challenges that required an overhaul of the operational model and set new tasks for them. Among them, were the need for new approaches to supporting the private sector and creating jobs, a focus on development of human capital and social issues, an active approach to the ‘green’ and ‘climatic’ agendas, introduction of new ESG standards, and creation of a stable infrastructure. New global challenges have emphasized the need of even greater coordination in the work of development institutions both on global and regional levels. In the course of carrying out development projects in the EAEU/CIS, development banks must take into account not only the revised goals and objectives, but also the features intrinsic to the region. Development banks face such challenges as insufficiency of well-developed integration and transformation projects, risks of sanctions, imperfections of regulatory framework, and others. Improving coordination and cooperation of these institutions, including carrying out joint projects, developing new formats and instruments, and searching for synergy and new growth points, are the solutions that will allow material improvement of development banks’ potential in the region and achieve noticeable growth in the number of significant transformation and integration projects in the EAEU/CIS.
