| Summary: |
Finance and development are intertwined. The challenge of
amassing the right amounts and kinds of financing that are
needed to build infrastructure, support trade and industry,
enable high-quality public services, grow agriculture, foster
community and so on is well known. However, finance left
to its own will accomplish little more than amassing more
finance. For finance to have a truly sustainable and equitable
development orientation, it must have a public purpose that
is decolonialised and democratically grounded. Yet, more
than 40 years of market-oriented development finance policy
have bent the meaning of public purpose towards private
interests. For advocates of this dominant approach, like the
World Bank, this means using public money to de-risk private
investments in the hopes that public support will maximise
private financial flows into development projects. This is
the vision of the newly inaugurated development branch
of the European Investment Bank, EIB Global, launched in
early 2022. This is a very problematic vision and it will prove
incapable of enabling a global green and just transition for all.
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