24Received 11.06.2024. Revised 01.07.2024. Accepted 05.08.2024.
Acknowledgements. The study was prepared with the support of a grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for major scientific projects in priority areas of scientific and technological development no. 075-15-2024-551 “Global and regional centers of power in the emerging world order”.
Abstract. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are increasingly considered on the international agenda as one of the significant institutions for financing sustainable growth in the developing countries. In this article main activities of the four largest regional development banks are analyzed in the context of the reforms necessary to increase the financial capacity of MDBs. The need to reform the activities of multilateral development banks is due to both external and internal objective reasons. As regional development banks, all four banks discussed have the goal of promoting sustainable socio-economic development of the countries in their region, including poverty alleviation, as well as regional integration. The 21st century, accompanied by a polycrisis, poses new challenges for MDBs, to solve which it is necessary to increase their financial capabilities, as well as to change the credit policy and bank management system towards greater consideration of the interests of borrowing countries. A new social contract is needed between MDBs and developing countries that receive financial resources. The study shows that at the current stage, the practical activities of MDBs in implementing reforms are carried out mainly in the area of optimizing the capital structure and balance sheet and do not address fundamental problems. This can be explained by two objective factors: leading Western countries remain the largest shareholders of traditional development banks, which determines the vector of credit policy; the main source of funding for MDBs remains the world financial markets, which impose strict requirements on the level of investment profitability of attracted resources. In this situation, to fully address the problem of development finance, fundamental reforms in the activities of regional MDBs are needed, strengthening cooperation between them, creating coalitions with donors and intergovernmental funds, including between countries of the Global South, as well as joint efforts to promote the need to increase official development assistance (ODA) on various international platforms, including the G20 and COP.
Keywords: multilateral development banks (MDBs), Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, MDB reform
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