Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture

This briefing, published by the Institute for Economic Justice and endorsed by 74 organisations and individuals, critiques the World Bank's 'Evolution Roadmap'. The authors argue that the Roadmap fails to address the structural inequalities of the global financial architecture and relies too heavily on the 'Cascade' approach—prioritising private finance over public interest. The document proposes a radical shift toward 'public sector solutionism', including the adoption of a human rights policy, the end of fossil fuel financing, and a rethink of how inequality is measured and addressed.

• The World Bank's Evolution Roadmap is criticised for omitting an analysis of how the unequal international financial architecture and global trade regime structurally disadvantage low- and middle-income countries. The briefing argues the Bank ignores its own complicity in creating the 'crisis of development' through the promotion of 'Washington Consensus' policies, which included enforced privatisation, trade liberalisation, and the promotion of fossil fuels.
• The briefing strongly opposes the 'Cascade' approach (also known as 'Billions to Trillions' or 'Maximising Finance for Development'), which seeks to prioritise private sector investment. The authors claim this model transforms public goods into asset classes, socialises risks for private investors while privatising profits, and fails to deliver the necessary scale of financing for the poorest populations.
• The document argues that the World Bank's current financing methods exacerbate debt crises in climate-vulnerable countries. By providing primarily debt-based climate finance and maintaining a priority on its AAA rating and preferred creditor status, the Bank contributes to a cycle where countries take on more debt to address a crisis they did not cause.
• The briefing calls for the World Bank to adopt a formal Human Rights policy. This proposed policy would include mandatory human rights due diligence for loans, a zero-tolerance approach to reprisals, and a remedy framework to provide compensation for past harms caused by Bank-supported activities.
• To achieve climate justice, the authors demand that the World Bank end all support for fossil fuels, including oil, coal, and fossil gas. They argue the Bank has financed over $16 billion for fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement and should instead support publicly-owned clean energy transitions.
• The briefing suggests that the World Bank's 'Shared Prosperity Goal' is an inadequate measure of inequality because it focuses only on the bottom 40% of incomes. The authors recommend new metrics that compare the growth of the bottom 40% against the top 1%, 5%, and 10% to address extreme concentrations of wealth.
• The authors propose a shift toward 'public sector solutionism', which includes creating an independent debt work-out mechanism based at the UN, establishing a UN tax convention, and reforming IMF Special Drawing Rights to provide non-debt creating financing.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2023). Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CSO-reaction-to-WBG-evolution-roadmap_FINAL-1.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture. 2023. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CSO-reaction-to-WBG-evolution-roadmap_FINAL-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture |date=July 2023 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CSO-reaction-to-WBG-evolution-roadmap_FINAL-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2023civil, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CSO-reaction-to-WBG-evolution-roadmap_FINAL-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }