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  • 15 Sep 2025
    • Poverty
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Africa

    Ethiopia’s grand projects fail the human capital test

    Kurniawan Arif Maspul
    Despite immense infrastructure success, a neglected education sector risks turning concrete wealth into a hollow monument.
  • 4 Mar 2025
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United States

    Why collective action and institutions matter

    Jenny Gordon
    Otherwise, the bears win.
  • 29 Nov 2024
    • Global Economy
    • IMF
    • BRICS
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Top jobs must go to the best candidates. International financial institutions should be no different

    Robert Wihtol
    The appointment of a new Asian Development Bank president highlights the need for a shift to competitive and transparent selection of senior management everywhere.
  • 24 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    A new multilateral bank, not an American “Marshall Plan” alone, is the key to a clean energy future

    Michelle Lyons , Roland Rajah , Grace Stanhope
    The numbers don’t add up for the United States to make itself the global hub for green technology.
  • 17 Oct 2024
    • Global Economy
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Economic diplomacy: After the storm comes the reconstruction

    Greg Earl
    From a new measure of business competitiveness to revamped supply chains, global agencies are slowly adjusting to post-pandemic life.
  • 4 Sep 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Australia should make a strategic investment in the World Bank

    Roland Rajah , Georgia Hammersley
    Geostrategic competition makes the multilateral advantage more vital than ever, especially in the Pacific.
  • 2 May 2024
    • South Korea
    • Australia
    • Australia's Economy
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • G20
    • Geo-economics
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Economic diplomacy: It’s nostalgists vs strategists

    Greg Earl
    As a new Treasurer claims a geo-economic legacy in industrial policy, his predecessor’s once shiny G20 triumph has been dumped.
  • 2 Apr 2024
    • Japan
    • Southeast Asia
    • Australia and Asia
    • Australia's Trade
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Australia’s Southeast Asia trade stumbling block

    Maxfield Peterson
    Canberra must move fast on a formal information-sharing facility to reach its regional economic and foreign policy goals.
  • 28 Mar 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Asia and Pacific
    • The Asia Pacific's Economies
    • Climate change
    • Environment
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Replenishing the Asian Development Bank in the Pacific

    Roland Rajah , Alexandre Dayant
    A strong replenishment of the bank’s grant financing arm would serve the Pacific well.
  • 8 Mar 2024
    • Development Assistance
    • Southeast Asia
    • Poverty
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Sex and Gender

    Gender equality financing: Spotlight on Southeast Asia

    Grace Stanhope
    A discrepancy in data collection for gender-led funding is skewing the stats on development support in the region.
  • 16 Jun 2023
    • China
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Does China wield excessive influence in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank?

    Robert Wihtol
    A dramatic resignation this week has put a spotlight on the functions of Beijing’s brainchild.
  • 3 May 2023
    • Global Economy
    • Global Economic Governance
    • IMF
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    International debt: Time for a global restructuring framework

    Stephen Grenville
    In domestic bankruptcy, a specialised institution settles creditors. Why can’t this be the case for emerging economies?
  • 27 Apr 2023
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Shaky foundations for the New Development Bank

    Filipe Porto , Genevieve Donnellon-May
    A new president for BRICS groupings finance arm must steer geopolitical storms from outside – as well as within.
  • 15 Mar 2023
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Greening the World Bank

    Roland Rajah
    Reform must deliver for both climate and development.
  • 20 Oct 2022
    • Global Economy
    • IMF
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Economic diplomacy: The IMF faces a US$ reality check

    Greg Earl
    The Bretton Woods institutions may face existential challenges from the decoupling of the United States and China.
  • 6 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Economic diplomacy: Time for transparency on aid reform

    Greg Earl
    A new study reveals difficult trade-offs between development spending on governance and the decline of democracy.
  • 4 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Asia
    • Australia and Asia
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Building a better development finance institution: Australia’s opportunity

    Jessica Mackenzie , Alberto Lemma
    Canberra can learn a lot about risk appetite and the culture of financing from those already in the space.
  • 23 Sep 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Six reasons to be cautious about Australia establishing a DFI

    Jenny Gordon
    As soon as public money is on the table, there will be a line of players looking to “clip the ticket”.
  • 3 Jun 2022
    • Asia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Asean
    • Australia
    • Energy

    Labor should create a “Regional Carbon Bank” for ASEAN and the Pacific

    Peter McCawley
    An urgent demand for clean electricity infrastructure requires needs a dedicated, multilateral agency in support.
  • 4 Dec 2020
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Jim Wolfensohn’s knowledge bank

    Peter McCawley
    Impatient and ambitious, as World Bank president the Australian-turned-American tackled a global “cancer of corruption”.
  • 4 May 2020
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Coronavirus

    Covid-19 and development banks in Asia

    Malcolm Cook
    Covid-19 has challenged fears, or hopes, the AIIB would supplant the World Bank and ADB as the development bank in Asia.
  • 28 Nov 2019
    • Asia
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • China

    The new development banks: Paradigm shift or poor imitation?

    Robert Wihtol
    The multilateral development banks set up by China and the BRICS countries have evolved quickly from concept to reality.
  • 25 Oct 2017
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • IMF

    The future role of international financial institutions

    Mike Callaghan
    The international financial system is significantly different to the one that existed when the IMF and World Bank were established.
  • 27 Sep 2017
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    The Asian Development Bank's unfinished business

    Peter McCawley
    There is clearly a need to for the ADB consider new approaches. But the huge amount of unfinished work across Asia should remain a priority as well.
  • 15 Sep 2017
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    The Asian Development Bank at 50: A spent force?

    Richard Moore
    The Asian Development Bank was once an indispensible institution and should seek to be so again.
  • 15 Mar 2017
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Is the AIIB still ‘lean, clean and green’?

    Sam Geall
    It's a good moment to ask whether the AIIB is holding true to the most central and repeated claim that the bank will be 'lean, clean and green'.
  • 8 Dec 2016
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    The future of the AIIB is bigger than Australian coal

    Hannah Wurf
    If Australian support for the AIIB is so driven by coal exports, the government's commitment to sustainable regional development should be questioned.

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