Recommendations of the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth

A new joint report from an international panel of development experts outlines recommendations needed to support a pathway to green, resilient, and inclusive development. The report, “The Big Push for Transformation through Climate and Development – Recommendations of the High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth,” summarizes insights derived from meetings, consultations, and studies conducted during the 18 months of the HLAG.

“The world is at a pivotal moment.  Hard-fought development progress has been eroded by a devastating convergence of recent and ongoing crises.  Despite these challenges, the current opportunities are unique.  From astonishing advances in technology and innovation to unprecedented alignment among international organizations on the approach to green, resilient and inclusive development, the HLAG recommendations provide the world community a path for the necessary action – action at scale and speed”, says Mari Pangestu, HLAG cochair and World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships.

To address the urgent need for concerted action at global and national levels, the report provides recommendations on critical issues including:

• The need for rapid and sustained scaling up of investment.
• Supporting a just energy transition.
• Technology innovation and institutional strengthening.
• Expanding fiscal space, improving the quality of spending, and scaling up financing for development.

“This report is an urgent call to take the necessary actions for green, resilient, and inclusive growth. In addition to policies—including carbon pricing or equivalent measures—that promote investment, providing timely debt treatments and concessional official finance is critical to catalyze much needed order-of-magnitude increase in private finance. The IMF’s new Resilience and Sustainability Trust also can contribute. It will be essential that the benefits and opportunities from the green transition are shared widely, the dislocated are compensated, and the most vulnerable are protected”, says Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, IMF Director of Strategy, Policy and Review.

Launched in June 2021, the HLAG focused on the urgent need for collective action to tackle various crises that have exacerbated structural weaknesses, worsening poverty and inequality.

“Delivering on the agenda for green, resilient and inclusive development will require strong investment.  Action to foster that investment on the necessary scale is now urgent.  Different kinds of investment will require different combinations of finance, and in all cases, the cost of capital will be crucial. The HLAG has done, in my view, a very serious and constructive job in setting out what strategies are necessary and how they can be achieved.  It has been an important collaboration between those inside the IFIs and those involved in policy making and investment outside the IFIs.” says Lord Nicholas Stern, HLAG co-chair and IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics.

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About the High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth

The HLAG was co-led by Mari Pangestu (World Bank), Ceyla Pazarbasioglu (IMF) and Nicholas Stern (London School of Economics). HLAG consists of a core working group drawn from the World Bank Group, IMF, London School of Economics, Brookings Institution and high-level experts from relevant fields across the world.

Members contributed to the report in their individual capacity, not as part of the organizations they represent. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, their Boards of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent.

Lord Nicholas Stern, the chair of the Grantham Research Institute, is one of the HLAG’s co-chairs, and oversaw the report preparation along with the other two co-chairs, Mari Pangestu and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu. The report’s writing team also included colleagues from the Institute.