The social development bank for Europe

Multilateral Development Banks: Delivering as a system

People walking MDB ©Getty Images Klaus Vedfel

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are committed to strengthening their collaboration and improving how they work together as a system to deliver greater impact and accelerate progress on sustainable development. The Heads of MDBs Group is a forum for dialogue and coordination among the leaders of major MDBs, who regularly engage to share knowledge and collaborate on initiatives. In 2025, the CEB held the rotating chair of the Group.

Together for impact and scale

While each MDB has its own mandate and experience to bring to the table, enhanced coordination on systemic issues reduces duplication of efforts and adds value through collective action. Amid rising global uncertainty, this work is becoming more important by the day.

In a Viewpoint Note, published in April 2024, the MDB leaders outlined key deliverables for joint and coordinated action, building on the progress since their Marrakech statement in 2023.

The note reflected an unprecedented level of collaboration among institutions and led to several milestones in 2024 and further progress in 2025.

G20 roadmap towards better, bigger and more effective MDBs

In October 2024, the Heads of MDBs welcomed the endorsement by G20 Leaders of the G20 Roadmap towards Better, Bigger, and More Effective MDBs.

The Roadmap outlines a comprehensive vision for continuing to reform MDBs to better address regional and global challenges, create more jobs and opportunities, and support countries to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Open the roadmap

Continued progress in 2025

To build on the momentum, and informed by the G20 Roadmap, in 2025 MDBs –under the CEB's leadership, have advanced the implementation of their reform agenda and engaged with the G20 South African presidency to track progress, leveraging existing reporting mechanisms and in alignment with their respective mandates and governance frameworks.

In February, for the first time, the CEB hosted the Heads of MDBs and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in Cape Town, in the margins of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting and the Finance in Common Summit.

Building on the work in Cape Town, the CEB chaired a second meeting of the Heads of MDBs in April during the World Bank Group-International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., where leaders reaffirmed their collective commitment to working more effectively as a system.

As the social development bank for Europe, the CEB – during its chairmanship – brought social investment to the forefront of the system-wide MDB agenda, as a driver of inclusive growth and an underlying condition for sustainable development. To that effect, in April, the Bank brought together experts from across the MDB system to Paris to share insights and perspectives on social infrastructure investment in a day-long workshop. This was a continuation of a collaborative process to exchange knowledge and explore pathways for further cooperation.

It culminated in a joint report of the 10 MDBs, Social Infrastructure in Focus: The Role of Multilateral Development Banks, which casts a light on the catalytic role that these institutions play in advancing and sustaining social infrastructure investment around the world. Coordinated by the CEB, the joint report builds on a structured dialogue among MDBs over the course of 2025 to provide a snapshot of their individual and collective approaches in relation to social infrastructure investment. The report underscores the fundamental importance of social infrastructure investment for jobs and inclusive growth, and for achieving the SDGs, while making the case for strengthening such investment.

In June, the CEB also hosted the annual meeting of the Multilateral Development Banks’ Global Risk and Finance Forum (GRaFF), bringing together MDB risk and finance decision makers in Paris to advance system-wide collaboration. As a result of this collaboration, GRaFF produced the Multilateral Development Banks Comparison Report 2025 was published for the first time in September. Coordinated by the CEB and EBRD with inputs from all participating MDBs, the Comparison Report is as a concrete step in the implementation of the recommendation by the G20 Independent Review of MDBs’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks (CAF) to improve visibility around capital adequacy and financial resilience.

At the third meeting of the Heads of MDBs Group, which was also held in Paris in June, the Heads committed to strong joint action on development priorities ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla.

During their final 2025 meeting in Washington D.C. the heads welcomed progress in a number of areas of joint action and reiterated their determination to keep working as a system to deliver tangible results.

Bringing the CEB’s tenure as Chair to a close, in December 2025, Governor Monticelli presented the inaugural Implementation Report of the G20 Roadmap for Better, Bigger and More Effective MDBs at the G20 South Africa Leaders’ Summit.