In March, the Blavatnik School of Government, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hosted a meeting of experts on finance for international development.  

One of the issues under discussion was the scope for a bigger, better World Bank to play a stronger role. Mark Lowcock, Permanent Secretary of the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government set out some preliminary ideas in an interview with Kevin Watkins at Overseas Development Insitute (ODI) in April.

This Policy Memo fleshes out those thoughts in more detail and constitute the basis for some specific proposals circulated to the Board of the World Bank Group. The proposals will be discussed over the next few months, including at the World Bank’s Annual Meetings in October, and some decisions are likely to be taken by the end of the year. DFID are continuing to develop their thinking on all this, and welcome ideas and suggestions.