Is Development Collapsing? How to Achieve Progress in a Disarrayed World

May 8, 9:00-10:15 AM | Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, New York

Trade wars, slashed aid budgets, rising carbon emissions, funding shortfalls, SDG fallout, and creeping authoritarianism - multilateral development efforts are under increasing pressure. These challenges are not only testing the resilience of global cooperation but also threatening the core missions of both the World Bank and the UN system.

Yet every crisis carries within it the seeds of innovation and renewal. Both institutions have begun adapting - but are these steps bold enough to meet the demands of a rapidly deteriorating geo-economic landscape?

Against this backdrop, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) invited to an off-the-record roundtable discussion:

Is Development Collapsing?

How to Achieve Progress in a Disarrayed World

Featuring:

Michael Krake, World Bank Executive Director for Germany

Mark Leon Goldberg, Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of UN Dispatch

This closed-door conversation explored how the World Bank, the UN system, and broader multilateral frameworks can remain effective and fit for purpose in an era of fragmentation and uncertainty.