Michael Krake (“The world needs a new financial architecture”, Opinion, May 31) makes some great points, but says little about the reforms needed to achieve development banks’ stated priorities in the world’s most fragile places.
By the World Bank’s own analysis, by 2030 nearly 60 per cent of the world’s extreme poor will live in places affected by violent conflict and state fragility. That proportion has risen inexorably for decades, as rates of poverty and hunger have reduced in stable contexts while flatlining in fragile ones.
Development banks are not peacemakers. But if their mandates to end poverty are serious, they need a new business model that responds to where need is now most concentrated.
Nimbler and more locally-driven approaches to planning projects and dealing with risk would help here. So would a readiness to sacrifice the efficiency of large-scale investments in favour of multiple smaller-scale projects that respond to what communities in conflict most need.
Done well, such investments can contribute positively to more stable and secure lives.
Nic Hailey
Executive Director, International Alert, London SE1, UK
