SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Finance and development are intertwined. The challenge of amassing the right amounts and kinds of financing that are needed to build infrastructure, support trade and industry, enable high-quality public services, grow agriculture, foster community and so on is well known. However, finance left to its own will accomplish little more than amassing more finance. For finance to have a truly sustainable and equitable development orientation, it must have a public purpose that is decolonialised and democratically grounded. Yet, more than 40 years of market-oriented development finance policy have bent the meaning of public purpose towards private interests. For advocates of this dominant approach, like the World Bank, this means using public money to de-risk private investments in the hopes that public support will maximise private financial flows into development projects. This is the vision of the newly inaugurated development branch of the European Investment Bank, EIB Global, launched in early 2022. This is a very problematic vision and it will prove incapable of enabling a global green and just transition for all.