FINANCING DEVELOPMENT: Demands from the Global South, challenges for the multilateral system

Historically, one of the central objectives of the multilateral system has been to promote development, notably by giving specific international organizations (such as the World Bank and regional development banks) the role of financing it. This chapter questions some critical transformations of the multilateral development financing system. It offers an overview of the work of international organizations on these issues, drawing on analyses from recent literature that place the demands and role of countries from the Global South front and centre. It begins by showing how, in the second half of the twentieth century, the multilateral system became polarized on the issue of development financing between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations. It then focuses on three key challenges: (1) the growing centrality of private actors and capital in multilateral development financing tools and initiatives, (2) the role of regional development banks and how China is transforming the landscape of development financing, and (3) the renowned inability of the multilateral system to establish a framework for dealing with debt crises, exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.