Address by David Malpass - President of the World Bank Group - at the 2022 Annual Meetings

Jul 19, 2026

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Address by David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, to the Board of Governors at the Joint Annual Discussion (October 14, 2022). The speech reviews financial results and highlights major development challenges intensified by COVID-19, conflict, and extreme weather. It focuses on reversals in health and education, rising debt distress, constrained fiscal space, and the global learning crisis, while outlining the World Bank Group’s surge of operational support and emergency financing for Ukraine. It also discusses governance and capital structure needs, climate change, global public goods, and IDA20 replenishment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Address by David Malpass

Development challenges and reversals

Debt, fiscal constraints, and education

World Bank Group support, Ukraine financing, and IDA20

Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized October 14, 2022 Address by DAVID MALPASS, President of the World Bank Group, to the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group, at the Joint Annual Discussion Address by David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, to the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group, at the Joint Annual Discussion Good morning and welcome everyone, Thank you, Chairman Abdalla. And thank you to my dear friend and colleague, Kristalina, for your remarks. I’m very pleased to be back in person after two years of virtual and hybrid Annual Meetings. This week’s meetings and activities have been going remarkably well, with an amazing amount of energy and an abundance of good ideas. The intensity of the dedication to development and global progress is inspiring to us all. I’m especially happy to see all of you here and throughout the course of this week’s meetings. I only wish we were meeting under better circumstances. The crisis facing development is intensifying. Looking ahead, the Bretton Woods Institutions will need to consider their roles, governance, and capital structure, and evolve to address climate change and global public goods. Grants are critical for development and an even larger IDA in the future will be important as a leveraged source of grants and deeply concessional financing for the poorest countries. Bigger upwardly scaled commitments and projects including for global public goods, are necessary as part of the World Bank Group’s evolution. I will be very interested in your thoughts at the Development Committee Plenary and in the weeks ahead. It’s been two years since we held this Annual Meetings Plenary, so I wanted to provide a thorough update on the Bank Group’s financial results and a few of the immense challenges. People in developing countries are facing severe reversals in development from the COVID-19 pandemic, including in health and education. The human consequence is catastrophic. The COVID-19 pandemic – which alone led to over six million deaths – geopolitical conflicts, and extreme weather events have hurt countries and people worldwide, with the poor bearing the brunt, especially women and girls. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed about 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020 – the largest since our monitoring began. And the global median income declined by 4 percent in 2020 – the first decline since our measurements of median income began. Tightening of financial conditions globally, slow growth, and currency depreciations are undermining fiscal space available to support education, health, climate action, and infrastructure. Over 60% of low-income countries are in debt distress or high risk of it. Many middle-income countries are facing increased liquidity pressures. Debt service payments are rising. In 2022 alone, IDA countries will pay over $44 billion to their bilateral and private sector creditors. This overwhelms the Bank and Fund’s support to them this calendar year. Improving international mechanisms to resolve unsustainable debt is an imperative. One of the most prominent reversals is in education caused by prolonged school closures during the pandemic. Our data shows that 70% of children in low-and middleincome countries are in learning poverty – which is the share of children who are unable to read or understand a basic text by age 10. COVID-19 worsened the global learning crisis and resulted in the worst shock to education and learning in recorded history. Working with UNICEF, UNESCO, and many partners, we have called for countries to keep schools open, match instruction to a student’s level of learning, focus on foundational learning, and increase funding. The Bank Group has provided consecutive surges of operational support with speed, scale, and impact – first in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now in response to high inflation, the risk in food insecurity, and the Russian war on Ukraine and its spillove

FAQs

What development challenges does the address emphasize in 2022?

It highlights intensifying development crises driven by COVID-19, geopolitical conflicts, and extreme weather, with severe impacts on health and education.

How does the speech describe the education and learning situation during the pandemic?

It states that prolonged school closures led to an education reversal, citing “learning poverty” and calling for keeping schools open and aligning instruction to students’ learning levels.

What financing actions does the address mention for Ukraine and IDA?

It notes $13 billion in emergency financing mobilized for Ukraine and describes the IDA20 replenishment of $93 billion, including the scale and policy backing.

Jul 19, 2026

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