Adrian Robert Bazbauers and Susan Engel: The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development?

This book explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateraldevelopment banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing systemof international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the firstrecognisable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperationwith the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuatebut was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woodsin 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, andspecialised development banks has progressively emerged across theglobe, including two significant recent entrants established by China andthe BRICS.MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in memberstates, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. Theyoperate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBsfocusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank andsome of the larger regional banks have been scrutinised, little attention hasbeen paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book providesthe first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. Itanalyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics,development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banksas well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure,human development, and climate.This book will be of particular interest to researchers of developmentfinance, global governance, and international political economy