The 2025 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund convene at a time of profound global challenge and opportunity. The world continues to grapple with escalating conflicts, intensifying climate impacts, trade friction, food insecurity and the lingering effects of the pandemic. These shocks have slowed, and in some cases reversed, hard-won development gains. The most vulnerable people and countries continue to bear the heaviest costs.
In this context, the United Kingdom reaffirms its unwavering commitment to multilateralism. The IFIs are core to our new model of development and climate finance – based on partnerships, investment, expertise, and inclusivity. We commend the leadership and staff of the World Bank Group and the IMF for the scale and speed of their responses, and for the ambition of the World Bank Group’s evolution agenda and the IMF’s work to support stability and resilience. The Bretton Woods institutions remain indispensable to shared prosperity on a liveable planet, and their role is even more critical today.
In a changing global economy, our commitment to sustained economic growth and higher living standards globally remains ironclad. Recent global challenges have underlined the importance of stability as the cornerstone of growth. We will continue to work with our international partners, including at the Bank, to navigate shared challenges and build robust economic partnerships to support global growth.
Our approach is founded on the principles of stability, investment, and reform. That is why we welcome the Bank’s focus on delivering quality jobs and sustainable growth. When we build that foundational infrastructure – a healthy and skilled labour force, clean reliable transport and energy, and resilient natural resources – the private sector can grow and thrive and create the jobs of the future.
A new chapter for development finance
At the Fourth International Financing for Development Conference (FFD4) in Seville this July, the international community agreed that a new chapter is needed in how we finance development and sustainable growth for the next decade and beyond. The UK played a leading role in shaping the agenda and outcomes at FFD4, championing a fairer, more inclusive, and future-fit global financial system. We are now looking forward to working with the international community and international financial institutions to build on this consensus. The global financial system should empower developing countries to finance their own development, climate, and nature goals sustainably; attract investment for growth and jobs and reduce reliance on aid.
The UK announced 2 new initiatives in Seville, aiming to drive action on key priorities. First, in partnership with the Bridgetown Initiative, we called for a scale up of pre-arranged finance, including insurance, from 2% to 20% of all crisis finance by 2035. Second, with the Philippines, we launched a coalition to unlock more private capital for developing countries through public markets. Our partnership with the WBG is key to making progress on both endeavours.
UK commitment to multilateralism and the IFIs
The UK’s approach remains to ensure every pound spent has maximum impact on global priorities: humanitarian, health, and climate crises. Within this, we have prioritised spending through the most impactful multilateral organisations, including honouring our ambitious pledge to IDA21, recognising the importance of a reformed IDA as the best way of reaching the poorest and most vulnerable.
We continue to support the full spectrum of the Bank Group—IDA, IBRD, IFC, and MIGA—and welcome the continued focus on delivering results at country level, strengthening crisis preparedness, and building a more effective system that mobilises all sources of finance. We also welcome ongoing steps to improve efficiency and impact, including strengthened country engagement, streamlined processes, and innovations that expand lending headroom and mobilise more private capital. However, more must be done. As shareholders, we have a responsibility to ensure the institutions are better, bigger, and crucially fairer, delivering for those most in need while safeguarding debt sustainability and fiscal space.
Scaling the system: doubling MDB financing
The UK is leading efforts to double the scale of Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) financing, including through balance sheet stretching, financial innovation, and ambitious replenishments. We support the comprehensive review of the IBRD’s capital adequacy framework and the introduction of innovations such as hybrid capital and guarantees. The MDBs are uniquely positioned to deliver development finance at scale, and further work on this agenda is needed to deliver the volume of finance needed to meet the scale of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and tackle climate, conflict and nature crises.
Improving system-wide effectiveness: breaking down siloes
We urge the Bank to continue breaking down siloes, increasing operational efficiency, and deepening collaboration across MDBs, climate funds, and UN agencies. The Bank’s speed initiative and evolution toolkit are important steps forward, but client countries want to see further simplification and agility in delivery, particularly in Fragile Conflict and Violence (FCV) contexts. We welcome the Bank’s commitment to reducing project approval times and rolling out the evolution toolkit to increase impact, including global challenge programmes and financial incentives.
The World Bank, alongside the Regional Development Banks, has a central role in reforming the fragmented aid architecture, working alongside health and climate funds to deliver a more client-led, responsive, and collaborative multilateral system. We also expect the Bank to play a leadership role in better aligning rules and processes across MDBs and the wider development finance system – building on the recent mutual reliance frameworks – to ensure the system is delivering for developing countries.
Increasing voice and representation for low-income and vulnerable countries
The UK is committed to safeguarding and strengthening the World Bank Group, with robust and fair governance at its core. The World Bank’s ongoing shareholding review is a critical opportunity to make the institution more representative of low-income and vulnerable client countries, putting these countries more clearly in the lead on their own development priorities. This is a moment for real change – we want to see an outcome that delivers on behalf of these countries, and the institution as a whole. We also need to look to the longer-term and consider how we can best use future reviews to support a more fit-for-purpose governance structure at the Bank.
Yet this is more than just the World Bank shareholding reviews. We need to see more voice for these countries across the development architecture. That is why we are pleased to co-host this year’s African Development Fund replenishment in London – there is much we can learn from how they put client countries in the driving seat.
Increasing private capital mobilisation
Public financing alone will never be sufficient to tackle the global development challenges we face. The UK is looking to the IFC and the wider development finance system to take risk to make job-creating and transformative investments in businesses in lower income and fragile contexts. In more established markets, we need them to mobilise private capital at scale, including for the energy transition. We also want the IFC to play a collaborative role in setting standards, from origination to impact, which will create an investible asset class attracting institutional investors.
That is why the UK has supported the IFC’s new Emerging Markets Securitisation Programme (EMSP) – the first transaction of its kind which marks IFC’s strategic shift towards an ‘originate-to-distribute’ model, by transferring assets and risk off their balance sheet. Our $25m investment through the UK’s Mobilist programme has helped to draw in private sector investment totalling $510m, freeing up IFC’s capital to invest in other development priorities. It is also why we launched an industry-led EMDE Investor Taskforce, capitalising on the substantial expertise that exists in the UK’s financial sector to drive action.
Looking ahead to IFC’s Vision 2030, we want to see high ambition and concrete steps taken towards implementation – from scaling up IFC’s offer for low income and FCV countries, to mobilisation of the private sector at scale. On the former, in low income and FCV contexts, we want to see a more joined up Group-wide approach, with IFC taking more risk, strengthening its upstream operations, and scaling innovative instruments and approaches. For this to work, IFC needs to ensure it has enough staff in FCV countries to deliver this ambitious agenda. On mobilisation at scale, we want to see continued progress on the securitisation agenda, building on EMSP, a scaling up of guarantees, and more upstream and advisory work to build a bankable pipeline.
Maintaining MDB leadership on climate and nature
We call for continued climate and nature action, advocating for and supporting countries’ demand for low carbon, climate resilient, and nature positive development pathways. This entails alignment of all Bank operations to the Paris Agreement and inclusion of climate impacts into system-wide least-cost energy investments. Furthermore, it is crucial that the Bank deliver its central contribution to achieving the $300bn New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) agreed at COP29 and outlining further ambition at COP30, in line with the Baku to Belem Roadmap. We urge the Bank to capitalise on the success of the Climate Change Action Plan, furthering action in key areas, including supporting countries to design and implement ambitious national climate and development plans and deepening engagement in country-led platforms. Particular focus should be given to mainstreaming nature-positive solutions and adaptation and resilience.
The Bank’s recent flagship report ‘Rebooting Development’ reframes a critical narrative: that environmental harm is not an inevitable cost of development. Turning this into action is the next step.
The Bank must redouble its efforts on adaptation, significantly scaling up public and private finance and closing the gap on mitigation, particularly at IFC. We welcome the findings from the recent CCDR review and Rising to the Challenge report and encourage their implementation.
Nature must be further mainstreamed into operations and analytics, in line with the joint MDB statement on Nature. We welcome collaboration on deepening nature analysis in CCDRs, as well as other analytical tools, as a key precondition for this. We welcome the progress made on the new Tropical Forests Forever Facility and congratulate Brazil on its leadership; we look forward to seeing this set up by COP30.
Agriculture sits at the intersection of these issues but faces underinvestment (just 7 percent of climate finance). The UK continues to work alongside the Bank on these challenges including through our programmes Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) and Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (IFSLU), and the Just Rural Transition programme.
These challenges are particularly acute in FCV contexts, but similarly they receive little international climate finance. Addressing this gap requires not only scaled-up investment but also long-term support to build local capacity for climate planning, data, and delivery. Without targeted action, fragile settings risk being left behind in global climate efforts, undermining both development and stability.
Resilience in contexts affected by fragility, conflict and violence: deepening engagement
We expect nearly 60% of the extreme poor to be in countries affected by fragility and conflict by 2030 – whilst the poorest countries remain the most vulnerable to climate and nature shocks. These compound shocks also mean the scale and intensity of global food insecurity is persistently high, with 600 million people facing hunger last year. The MDBs have an increasingly important role to play working with and alongside humanitarian actors to remain engaged even in the most fragile states, support countries receiving refugees, prevent future conflicts, finance essential services and build the foundations for resilient growth. The Bank is a key partner through conflict – from Ukraine to Palestine, and across the Sahel and Horn of Africa.
We welcome the ceasefire in Gaza, with an end to the fighting, the release of the hostages and the resumption of aid. We are determined to seize this opportunity to deliver a lasting peace, and a stable, secure future for the whole region.
We respect the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis alike to live their lives in peace – free from violence and suffering – and are committed to preserving the 2-state solution and upholding the Palestinian people’s right of self-determination. This is the basis of our decision to recognise Palestine.
To support the realisation of this vision we must support the viability of the Palestinian economy and the Palestinian Authority. We call upon Israel to release the stranglehold on the Palestinian Economy and re-commit to the Paris Protocol: releasing withheld Clearance Revenues, committing to banking relationships, and enabling increased Shekel transfers. We welcome the Bank’s work and that of our partners gathered here this week to uphold the economy, provide opportunities for Palestinians, and work towards the long-term resilience and economic sustainability. We are proudly members of the Emergency Coalition to support this further.
The UK stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine in pursuit of a just and lasting peace. As well as putting pressure on Russia we need to keep Ukraine in the fight. In support of this, so far the UK has committed $5 billion in guarantees to support additional World Bank lending, part of wider package of European and G7 assistance under Ukraine’s Extended Fund Facility arrangement with the IMF, linked to its EU accession. However, with Ukraine facing a significant financing gap ($65.1bn) in 2026 onward, now is therefore the right time to look at unlocking the value of Russian Sovereign Assets in a manner consistent with domestic and international law, as the focus of a renewed financing package. It is also critical any assistance continues to form part of a balance of effort with Ukraine, including their steadfast commitment to reform.
More widely, we want to see a shift in the World Bank Group’s operating model to better address the underlying causes of fragility and conflict, and a clear commitment to improve the number, competencies and quality of staffing in fragile and conflict-affected settings. We also want to see more active tracking of, and reporting on, conflict prevention work, so that the Bank can better evaluate its impact. We also want to see a more strategic and systematic approach to financial and non-financial partnerships between the Bank and the UN, as well as with humanitarian actors who are often the first responders and key partners in crisis contexts. The refresh of the Bank’s Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Strategy is a critical moment to lock in these commitments.
In these contexts, social protection offers a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to repeated humanitarian responses and is a strategic investment in long-term resilience and stability. Yet despite its proven potential, it remains underused in FCV settings. We want to see IFIs prioritise these contexts within work to extend social protection coverage, engage more with humanitarian actors, and strengthen conflict sensitivity so that systems and assistance can be sustained through new crises.
Crisis preparedness, shock response, and food security
The UK welcomes the Bank’s continued roll out of pre-arranged and shock-responsive instruments that can disburse quickly and predictably, helping to protect development gains and fiscal space when disasters strike. We have long championed the expansion of innovative tools such as Climate Resilient Debt Clauses to more countries. Looking ahead, we want to see the Bank further invest in shock responsive social protection, early warning systems, risk analytics, and contingency planning to ensure crisis responses are faster, better targeted, and firmly anchored in country systems. It is clear that a greater proportion of crisis spending needs to be pre-arranged – in Seville we called for a target of 20% of crisis finance to be pre-arranged by 2035 (up from 2% currently) We would welcome the WBG and other MDBs sharing that ambition.
We also need better crisis finance in health emergencies, where the experience of Covid showed that rapid and effective funding is critical to prevent the loss of trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Given there is a 25% chance of another global pandemic in the next decade, we cannot lose momentum. The Bank is uniquely placed to bring together financing from donors and client countries for vaccines and other countermeasures – but only if it adjusts its financing toolkit. We are pleased to see that the Bank is developing innovative ways to improve the financing instruments at country level. However, in a future pandemic access to early vaccines is likely to depend on at-risk surging, including from the Bank’s own balance sheet, of pooled financing on behalf of many countries and potentially investing in new candidates. We need a clearly articulated framework on this, that can serve as a blueprint for mobilising rapid and effective financing in a future pandemic.
We welcome the World Bank Group commitment last year to double its agriculture finance, recognising that the sector employs 2 thirds of the workforce in low-income countries and is 2 to 4 times more effective at tackling poverty than other sectors. The sector remains underfunded with an estimated 170 billion dollar funding gap globally for smallholder farmers. The UK is using its ODA effectively to catalyse private investment in agrifood systems in low-income countries, working with IFC to strengthen its impact for agri-SMEs and smallholder farmers through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, while supporting innovative financing approaches through vehicles such as Financing Agri-SMEs in Africa (FASA), Aceli Africa and AgDevCo Ventures.
Tackling unsustainable debt
We remain highly concerned about the debt challenges facing many developing countries. In 2024, interest payments in IDA countries were at their highest rate in nearly 30 years[footnote 1] (World Bank, 2025); these are crowding out critical investments in growth and human capital.
The Fund and the Bank have a central role in supporting countries to address high debt service costs. We therefore call on the Bank and Fund to step up the roll-out the ‘Three Pillars Approach’, including a strong communication to countries who could benefit.
The Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework plays an essential role in shaping debt relief and concessional finance allocations. We welcome the ongoing review and continue to call for a full integration of climate and nature risks and the benefits of adaptation investments, ensuring the framework recognises that investing in resilience today reduces risks for tomorrow.
We thank the Bank and Fund for their ongoing leadership on tackling debt challenges and welcome the recent paper on Private Sector Participation in Debt Restructurings. We recognise that additional complexity in restructurings has led to longer timelines and are committed to strengthening the debt architecture to support sustainable development and growth. This year, the UK has supported the establishment of the London Coalition on Sustainable Sovereign Debt’ to work with private creditors on sovereign debt issues. This includes finding solutions to prevent creditor holdouts and speed up private sector restructurings. In parallel we continue to work with partners towards a stronger and faster G20 Common Framework that is available to all low- and middle- income countries.
IMF
The UK has always been a staunch partner of the IMF and supports its essential position at the centre of the global financial safety net (GFSN). Looking ahead, the IMF will need to help its members rise to both the challenges and opportunities facing the global economy, by becoming more alert to emerging risks; more active in preventing crises; and more agile in providing members with tailored and granular advice on how to navigate difficult policy trade-offs.
First, we need sharpened IMF surveillance. Surveillance is the first line of defence against macroeconomic and financial instability and as memory of the last global financial crisis fades, the IMF must focus and integrate its bilateral and multilateral surveillance to better anticipate risks and transmission channels and take a more systems-wide approach. This requires an ambitious Comprehensive Surveillance Review, including ensuring the Fund’s financial surveillance to keep pace with rapid changes in non-bank finance and financial innovation. Bilateral and multilateral surveillance should also allow for a deeper focus on the spillovers to individual economies from the large structural trends facing the global economy, such as climate shocks, the increased role of market-based finance and digital money.
Amidst growing excessive imbalances, the IMF must also improve its analysis of drivers, risks and global spillovers, including the risks of a disorderly unwind. This should also include greater focus on sectoral overcapacity to strengthen evidence, policy coherence and build international consensus. External sector surveillance should be mainstreamed across the Fund’s work. The Fund should combine its macroeconomic expertise with the WTO’s trade expertise, allowing both institutions to more effectively highlight the risks excessive imbalances create for the global trading system.
Effective IMF programmes, with well-designed conditionality, are crucial to helping countries restore macroeconomic and financial stability. IMF programmes must incentivise long-term reform and strong country ownership. In a more shock-prone world, macroeconomic policies and buffers must be strengthened. Robust fundamentals remain the foundation for a pro-growth environment and the Executive Board should have clear options for restoring off-track programmes. We welcome the forthcoming Review of Program Design and Conditionality, and look forward to further discussions on how to: achieve a longer-term perspective on programme engagement; integrate surveillance and CD firmly into the Fund’s lending mindset to ensure macro risks are detected early and authorities receive CD both to support programme implementation and post-programme momentum; instil programme adaptability and course-correction when unexpected shocks hit; better incorporate political economy and social conditions when designing fiscal adjustments and specific structural conditionalities; and learn relevant lessons from repeat/successive programmes to ensure the Fund helps countries tackle more persistent balance of payments (BoP) challenges. The review should also assess the effectiveness of lending and conditionality in protecting the poorest and promoting inclusive, sustainable growth, and consider how to best support fragile and conflict-affected states with limited administrative and reform capacity.
Third, the IMF’s central role in the global financial safety net should be reinforced, with greater emphasis on crisis prevention and increased use of precautionary facilities. These tools help countries manage shocks and reduce the risk of crises that strain IMF resources and cause wider spillovers. A holistic discussion is needed on the IMF’s role in relation to central bank swap-lines and Regional Financing Arrangements, and we look forward to engaging further on this broader question beyond just reviewing the Short-Term Liquidity Line.
Support for low-income countries and fragile states remains critical. The IMF’s capacity development offer is vital as LICs face heightened impacts from weak global demand, commodity price shifts, inflation, trade shocks, and restricted financial flows. We call for the full implementation of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust reforms to ensure its self-sustained lending capacity. Members must fulfil the necessary steps to facilitate an income transfer from the General Resource Account to the PRGT in the planned timeframe. We remain interested in exploring a targeted gold sale to support the PRGT when political conditions allow.
It is crucial that the IMF’s governance continues to evolve and reflect the reality of today’s global economy The UK remains firmly committed to quota and governance reforms to ensure the Fund’s continued credibility, legitimacy, and representativeness in the eyes of all its shareholders. and. The UK delivered its consent to implement the equiproportional quota increase agreed under the 16th General Review of Quotas (GRQ) last May. We encourage all members to provide their outstanding consent swiftly to avoid any delay in restoring the IMF to a quota-based institution. As we were not able to reach consensus on a re-alignment under the 16th GRQ, quota share re-alignment through the 17th GRQ is even more urgent. This will ensure the IMF better reflects members’ relative positions in the world economy. Furthermore, the UK believes that adequate burden-sharing, coupled with the protection of the voice and representation of the Fund’s poorest members, is essential. We look forward to continuing these discussions at the IMFC and Executive Board.
Tackling global challenges: illicit finance and irregular migration
We must also ensure development finance delivers its intended impact and is not lost to corruption. Each year, billions are laundered through the global financial system, draining resources critical for economic development. The UK is leading efforts to make company ownership transparent worldwide and is tightening our own rules to stop money laundering. We are also calling for stronger international action, including through a UK-hosted Countering Illicit Finance Summit. The UK values its partnership with the World Bank and IMF on tackling illicit finance and corruption, including through UK-supported Multi-Donor Trust Funds. We urge the Bank and Fund to further raise the global profile of efforts to counter illicit finance and corruption, build new partnerships across governments, civil society and the private sector to confront these challenges, and make full use of their expertise and resources to help countries build resilience against such risks and harms.
We welcome the role that the World Bank Group plays in tackling the drivers of irregular migration, including poverty, fragility and conflict. Done right, Bank operations can reduce those push factors – by supporting economic growth and job creation, increasing food security and access to basic services, and supporting countries’ resilience to crises and climate change. We welcome the continued commitment under IDA21 to creating economic opportunities for refugees and host communities. As we take forward the President’s ambitious jobs agenda and refresh the FCV strategy next month, the UK wants to see innovative and holistic approaches to addressing irregular migration and forced displacement put on the table.
Championing gender equality and inclusion
Women and girls are half the world’s population and half its potential. Achieving gender equality is therefore critical to achieving all our shared development goals. Last year we welcomed the Bank’s bold ambition to accelerate gender equality through its 2024 – 2030 Gender Strategy and the strong integration of gender equality throughout the IDA21 replenishment. We will continue to hold the Bank to account on the delivery of the Gender Strategy, including via IDA21 – particularly on the critical areas of tackling gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health. We encourage the Bank to ensure robust monitoring and accountability for gender outcomes, including through disaggregated data and transparent reporting mechanisms. We stand ready to work with the Bank and other partners to ensure that gender equality remains central to global development efforts and that no woman or girl is left behind.
Delivering a fairer system and shared prosperity
It is clear that the global financial system needs to deliver a fairer deal for developing countries and their citizens. Our modern approach to development will continue to be centred on genuine and equal partnerships delivered by listening to the voices of the Global South and making the system more representative of low-income and vulnerable countries. We are committed to working with all shareholders and with Bank and Fund management to translate ambition into delivery at speed and scale for those most in need.
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World Bank, Global Economic Prospects - Challenges for IDA countries 2025 ↩
