IFIs Back in the Spotlight
IAI - Istituto Affari Internazionali
Ideas for Italy, Europe and the world
Welcome back to Reshaping Multilateralism, a newsletter from the team at the Nexus25 project. Every month, we bring you the latest from the climate-food security-migration nexus, with a particular focus on how to make multilateralism work for everyone - not just the Global North.
This month, fluctuations in the global economy have dominated the media and multilateral world. In early April, the United States announced sweeping tariffs, including a 104% tariff on Chinese imports, escalating trade tensions and triggering significant market volatility. The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a historic decline, losing 4,000 points within 48 hours. In response to the market turmoil, the White House suspended the tariffs for 90 days.
These fluctuations have only compounded existing uncertainty for the future of global development, food security, and climate finance. In the wake of U.S. foreign aid cuts, other countries like the United Kingdom and Netherlands have followed suit. While practitioners are well aware of the need for new donor commitments, innovative financing mechanisms, and enhanced international cooperation.
Amidst these current economic and geopolitical shifts, key development and international financial leaders will meet later this month for the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings. There, discussions are expected to cover strategies to mitigate trade-related uncertainties and bolster economic resilience, mechanisms to support countries in managing debt and securing financial stability, fostering infrastructure development, sustainable agrifood systems, climate resilience, and financial innovation.
As these debates kick off in Washington, DC, partners in the Global South are on the frontlines of the development finance crisis, facing major gaps in foreign aid, rising interest rates, inflation, and debt crises - all as the climate and food security crises continue to accelerate. These dynamics rightfully cast doubt on whether progress can truly be made in this context - and whether decisions taken in DC will support the long-term sustainable development of partners in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and more.
Next week, the Nexus25 team will bring this perspective to the Spring Meetings, partnering with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to host a discussion of the World Bank’s approach in fragile and conflict-affected settings as they develop their next 5-year strategy. Given record levels of humanitarian need, global hunger, and shifting political priorities across much of the Global North, this strategy will serve as a critical inflection point for operating in contexts such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Guiding questions for the discussion will include:
How the World Bank’s new FCV strategy can evolve to meet the current political and humanitarian context;
How to anticipate climate disasters' potential to exacerbate security threats in fragile contexts;
Policy and funding gaps IFIs should be looking to fill in 2025 and beyond;
Lessons from previous interventions in Yemen, Afghanistan, and other fragile contexts; and more.
Until then, we’ll be reading (and listening to):
Lawfare Daily: Climate Security During the Trump Administration Years
Reuters: China's 10-year initiative aims for a more secure food supply by 2035
Nexus25 is a joint initiative from global experts at Istituto Affari Internazionali and the Center for Climate and Security funded by Stiftung Mercator. For more from the Nexus25 team, go to www.nexus25.org for our full body of research or click the “subscribe” button in the upper right corner of the page.