Strengthening global policy coordination across the UN, MDBs and IMF

In addition to supporting resilience and preparedness for the next crisis, ensuring the MO response is “more than the sum of its parts” will continue to be important for “building back better” and

regaining lost ground on the SDGs. Building upon the lessons learned from MO coordination in the context of COVID-19, the following policy considerations speak to potential actions at the global, regional and national level that could be taken to enhance MO co-ordination to respond to global challenges and support global development outcomes.

Strengthening global policy coordination across the UN, MDBs and IMF

1. Building platforms for global policy co-ordination across the UN, MDBs and IMF, with achievement of the SDGs as a core principle. COVID-19 demonstrated the importance of global policy co-ordination and dialogue to address a

crisis with diverse and interconnected impacts across sectors. Close interaction between the WHO, MDBs and IMF throughout the pandemic is now yielding a more integrated response to address ongoing liquidity challenges and systemic challenges such as climate change and pandemic preparedness. For example, the recent approval of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) will provide a means for HICs to reallocate SDRs to LICs with sustainable debt. These reallocations will support long-term concessional loans linked to policy conditionalities in the areas of climate change and pandemic preparedness. The IMF is currently engaging the WHO and World Bank to support the development of policy frameworks for these loans and to promote policy and operational coherence in these areas.89

Boosting global policy co-ordination across the UN, MDBs, IMF, national governments and other partners such as regional organisations could have broader impacts on co-ordination throughout

the multilateral system. As focus shifts toward “building back better” and regaining ground on the SDGs, enhanced global policy co-ordination across the UN, MDBs and IMF as envisioned in the UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda could yield important benefits, including:

i. building upon policy co-ordination to identify joint approaches to address long-term challenges; ii. resolving areas of potential fragmentation and overlap; iii. filling gaps in global co-ordination to address new challenges; and iv. monitoring joint progress in achieving collective goals.

Beyond strengthening coherence at the global level, several stakeholders noted that enhanced co-ordination between organisations at the level of senior leadership facilitates broader technical co-ordination at the operational level. National governments, as key “shareholders” of MOs have a role to play in promoting better coordination at the global level and promoting coherence and coordination in their governance of these institutions.

Co-ordination mechanisms like ACT-A and the MLTF could provide a model for addressing complex multi-dimensional challenges, including regaining ground on the SDGs. The MLTF provides an important example of how co-ordination across the multilateral system can be used to bring evidence together from diverse sources to monitor progress achieved against collective goals, enhancing transparency and

89 International Monetary Fund (2022) “PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY TRUST” https:// www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2022/04/15/Proposal-To-Establish-A-Resilience-and-Sustainability-Trust-516692