New York

25 April 2022

Readout of the Deputy Secretary-General’s meeting with Mr. Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank and Current Chair of the Multilateral Development Bank

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General

The Deputy Secretary-General met with Mr. Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank and current Chair of the Multilateral Development Banks, today having fruitful discussions on the critical role of multilateral development banks in supporting recovery from the compounded crisis of climate change, protracted COVID-19 pandemic and latest the war in Ukraine, to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular for vulnerable countries.  

They agreed that every effort must be made to align the international financial system to the Sustainable Development Goals to ensure we move towards a prosperous inclusive world.

  • In this regard, they discussed the need to prioritize flexibility and speed to provide timely emergency concessional financing, including grants, with an emphasis on net-positive resource transfers to countries experiencing social and economic distress.
  • The Common Framework for Debt Treatment should be improved to ensure it can function as an effective sovereign debt workout mechanism and un-used Special Drawing Rights that have been re-channeled through institutions, including MDBs, should be to support countries that need it the most. They agreed that efforts must continue to increase climate finance and to allocate 50% of these resources to adaptation.  They also agreed to work together on scaling up financing for education towards the Transforming Education Summit taking place in September and to join forces in supporting scale-up of investments in connectivity, energy and food systems