The World Bank and International Monetary Fund's Spring Meetings kicked off this week with concerns over high inflation, rising geopolitical tensions, climate change and financial instability. World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel van Trotsenburg told FRANCE 24 that "we need to stay engaged with developing countries. More than ever, problems that are getting worse in certain parts of the developing world will have spillover effects and that is also not good for richer countries".
Despite criticism of the G20 common framework on debt restructuring, van Trotsenburg says it's the best way to bring creditors to the table. "This is a difficult process, but it is the necessary process to bring all groups together. There is, I think, no alternative but to continue working with all the creditor groups, try to understand what their issues are, but also make the case for poor countries. The World Bank, at the end of the day [wants these countries to] reset their debt situation so they can refocus on poverty measures, provide more funding for education and health," he said.
Van Trotsenburg added: "What the last couple of years have shown is that global crises are impacting poverty and the development process (...) This needs to be better integrated, and I think what is going to be extremely important from our operational point of view is that climate change is DNA-ed into all our operations".
