Development Banks in Transition: AFD’s 14th International Research Conference

Nearly 800 researchers and development experts will put the “invisible hand” of the market dear to the economist Adam Smith into contrast with “The Visible Hand of Development Banks in Transition,” the name given to AFD’s 14th international development research conference to be held online from November 3 to 10, 2020.

The conference has been organized as part of Finance in Common, the first global summit of public development banks. It will consist of two main parts: the Academic Days from November 3 to 5 and then the Open Discussion Days on November 9 and 10.

See also: The Finance in Common Summit, all our articles

Focusing in on the SDGs

The Academic Days will be dedicated to researchers and experts from academia, think tanks, and international organizations. Researchers involved in the International Research Initiative on Public Development Banks (PDBs) will present the findings and conclusions of their research program and working groups.

A total of 15 research projects will be presented there, covering five key challenges: how to determine investments compatible with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the business model of development banks, governance, financial regulation, and the global architecture of development finance.

Based on these research findings, the Open Discussion Days will attempt to work out recommendations for decision-makers to enable development banks to amplify their actions to achieve SDGs and pave the way for a more responsible economic recovery that is compatible with the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. The working groups of the International Research Initiative on Public Development Banks will also present their findings and conclusions during those Days.

A Nobel Prize Winner in Economics

High-level speakers will include heads of development banks, in particular members of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and the World Federation of Development Finance Institutions (WFDFI), as well as renowned economists and researchers such as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and the President of the Center for Global Development (CGDev) Masood Ahmed.

This conference is being organized with academic support from the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University (INSE), the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) and the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI).

 

The Visible Hand: Development Banks in Transition. November 3 to 10, 2020: Link to the program and registration