 line, three eminent presidents of multilateral development banks and a distinguished past president. Let me introduce them. Dr. Jean Dion, the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank, Dr. Warren Smith, distinguished past president of the Caribbean Development Bank and Mr. Claver Carone, president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Regrettably, I have to extend sincere apologies on behalf of Dr. Akenwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, who's unable to participate this morning. I'm very disappointed I was looking forward to hearing myself. Let me first say that the CDB President Chat series is designed to discuss development issues in a non-technical manner that is readily accessible to citizens on all our continents. Our topic for today's discussion asks the question, how best can multilateral development banks play a catalytic role in mobilizing innovative financing, including from the private sector, in order to accelerate development outcomes? So we've stressed innovative and from the private sector, so I am sure that we will have those covered. In speaking of development outcomes, we of course refer principally to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, we reached by 2030. The 17 SDGs include what are not limited to elimination of poverty, enhancement of food security, reduced inequity, good health and quality education, clean water, affordable energy, industry innovation and infrastructure, climate action and peace, justice and strong institutions. Multilateral development banks have a significant role to play in driving much needed reforms to achieve the SDGs with the end goal of improving and sustaining livelihoods. The attainment of the SDGs will require significant resources from the public and private sectors if we are to make genuine progress. So far, developed countries have pledged 100 billion US dollars per year by 2025 to assist developing countries in achieving these goals, but only a very small portion of these funds have actually been forthcoming. Today's chat will examine common development challenges and priorities and explore how best multilateral development banks can play a catalytic role in mobilizing innovative financing, including from the private sector, to accelerate development outcomes. Let us commence with a question to President Leon. President Leon, CDB is placing increased emphasis on more holistic approach to development of the region. Can you elaborate on the key elements of the holistic approach and how you see it driving the sustainable development agenda going forward? You have the floor. Thank you very much, Marianne. And equally, let me say a big thank you to my fellow President Hoyer from the EIB and former President Smith of the CDB. From our perspective in terms of a holistic approach to development, I think we need to start from the very real position that the region's needs are extremely, extremely huge. And they are very, very much in a, if we can put this correctly, a phase that says we need to tackle all of the needs, not just one of the needs, because if we don't do all, we simply cannot achieve the development goals that we are talking of. And when we say development goals, what exactly are we talking about? We can summarize this as implying, making the region a place of choice where future generations want to live. And if we start from that basic premise, I can think very quickly of at least four key goals that we need to embrace as a region. One has to be food security. The second, we have to have energy security. The third, I think we must have water security. And then as long as you have the food, the water, the power, then we need to talk about quality of life security. And that will entail the very elements you spoke of in terms of the SDGs, living in a peaceful and secure environment, having access to quality health, having adequate education and shelter, such that your quality of life can be a premium. And so I think if we start from that particular position, we will understand that development therefore has to be a holistic one, which requires us to be able to tackle all of those particular needs that I just outlined. Now, to be able to do that, I think they have to be three key facilitators. Those facilitators have to be embracing a digital transformation in everything we do because it will be part of living in the 22nd, 21st, 22nd centuries. Second, we need to address what I think is the Achilles heel of the region over the last 50 years, solving our implementation capacity deficit problem. And the third is embracing and wrapping all of this in a concept of a strong governance. And governance here we are referring to the ability to make decisions in a very sound way based on evidence and strong institutional frameworks. So that is the element that we need to look at. And when we say holistic, we are talking of tackling the problem in all of those dimensions. Obviously, we cannot do all of it at once. And so what this means is we need to be able to prioritize. As long as we talk about prioritization, it becomes clear that we need to be able to distinguish our needs. And our needs are not the same at all points in time. And so we have indicated that the way we do this is to be able to distinguish one, the issue of rescue, because we in the region continue to be buffeted by various shocks across time. Second, we need to have an element of recovery. Because after the rescue operation is done, you have to be able to recover. And then the third is after rescue and recovery, you need to be able to reposition. And repositioning now says, how do you put yourself back to the gold pathway that you were doing before whatever crisis, whatever shock actually occurred. And therefore, for us, the fundamental element underlying all of this has to be resilience, being able to bounce back, being able to continue to build and do that in all of the areas that are necessary to make this a holistic statement. So it's holistic growth. And to have that, you must have holistic resilience. And holistic resilience mean a resilient ecosystem. And underlying all of this clearly, we cannot proceed without having adequate finance. And therefore, I underpin all of this to say our main issue or our biggest challenge in the region today is having access to adequate and affordable finance. I want to call it today hashtag AAAF access to adequate and affordable finance. So that is the goal that we are looking to do as a means of meeting the one purpose that we have, making the place, meaning the region, a place where we would all and future generations want to live by voting of choice. I think we can recognize therefore that given the magnitude of the problem that we are looking to fix, it's quite clear that we cannot do it by ourselves. And I say that to underline that the only way we can tackle the problem is through what we can call broadly strategic partnerships, strategic partnerships with the private sector, strategic partnerships with the external environment. And that means investors, knowledge creators, institutions that can provide ways in which we can do. But partnerships therefore become the basis, the foundation to allow us to do our key issue of meeting the purpose of a holistic development agenda with adequate and affordable finance. And I want to be able to close that initial segment by noting that if you have a trillion dollar problem, you cannot solve it with a million dollar solution. And since we have a million dollars, but we need a trillion dollars, there is no way we can get there without crowding in and therefore the need for partnerships from all areas domestic and external, public and private, institutional and even philanthropic as a means of addressing and taking us to the next point that we are looking to get to. So that would be the broad context. I think why we talk of holistic and why we talk of partnerships to be able to anchor the very one issue that we all need to embrace, as I said, is the hashtag triple A F, access to adequate, on the line adequate and affordable finance. Thank you very much. A very wide and sweeping presentation. And I think it clarifies a number of things for a number of people. I have a question about resilience. Somehow resilience did not make it in the 17 SDGs. Would you say it's represented by an aspect of every all of the other 17 areas? Absolutely. And if we get those, we are resilient. Absolutely, Marion, because resilience is a function. It's a functionality that says the only way you can keep yourself on a trajectory that is stable, that will allow you to sustain yourself is if you can be resilient. And you can be resilient in the sense that what we do know is the world is always a place of dynamic uncertainty. Things are always going to happen to throw you off that track. But when you get thrown off the track, if you are not able to bounce back, there is no way you can sustain the previous trajectory that you had. And so consequently, being able to be sustainable, being able to maintain and pursue longevity requires you to have resilience. And so resilience for us is not just climate resilience, but it is also social resilience in all spheres of social development. It is also institutional resilience, making sure our institutions can survive. And it is also productive capacity resilience, being able to rebound and continue on a path that we are talking about. So resilience for me is everything. And therefore, it is included in everything that we talk about under the SDGs. Right. Fine. Thank you very much. Let's move on to our next speaker. President Hoyer, CDB and EIB have partnered on many sustainable development initiatives. Do you foresee a future of enhanced collaboration between CDB and other MDBs on this holistic approach? And if so, what are some of the potential ventures that could arise from this increased focus? Well, first of all, Dr. Williams, let me thank you wholeheartedly for the invitation to be with you today. I told my people in the bank that I would be in the Caribbean today, and I got lots of envy for that. They didn't know that I'm sitting at the Frankfurt airport before I go on to Southeast Europe. But I take the opportunity to thank for the invitation. I think, particularly before I try to answer your question, I'd like to thank Dr. Leon for having been in Luxembourg last week at our bank. And we had a very, very fruitful exchange of views. I think there is a lot of music in that game. And I believe that we can already say that we show that partnerships are key, if you want to master multiple crises. Presently, we are really in a multi-crisis world. Beyond the climate question, which will be in the center of my remarks later on, we are presently busy from morning to night, practically only with COVID and with the war. And this is something where we also learn beyond resilience, which are fully shared. We need to be prepared. And preparedness, for instance, in the health sector, in the situation of the development of viruses, will be key. Now, I think CDB has an unparalleled expertise when it comes to tackling development challenges in the region. So working together, we can achieve much more. We have an excellent partnership with CDB, which started in, I think, in 1978. And since 2011, we have more and more focused on climate action with conceptual finance and technical assistance to support climate adaptation and mitigation in the Caribbean region. And this is only the beginning. There is no time to waste when it comes to climate. Investment over the next 10 to 15 years will change the face of our economies and our societies. And if we wait too long, we will be confronted with the necessity to engage in abrupt transition with the vulnerable most hit. And already now we can see that whether it's the consequences of the war in Ukraine, on the agricultural market, for instance, or whether it's the health situation and COVID probably was only the beginning of huge challenges in the health field, where we better be prepared and cooperate together. We recognize, absolutely, that beyond our cooperation between multilateral institutions, the provision of grants and loans, that's not enough. New financial instruments will need to be deployed in order to bring private capital to fund also climate action. And I think we have quite an experience in this field. I think we have placed there a world of cross-fertilized knowledge from our activities in the EU with its support to countries around the world, including the Caribbean. This is why our cooperation is so fruitful. I think we are, we can say we are a leader in capital, in societal capital markets. We invented, for instance, the first green bonds in 2007. At that time, it was considered a lunatic idea. This lunatic idea is now enormously heavy, a trillion of dollars in the market. And I think, therefore, we can play a role together with CDB in catalyzing investment also in the Caribbean. We have cooperated on sustainability bonds and recently we discussed how to increase support to the private sector. There is enormous potential for guarantees and other risk-sharing instruments so that more private capital can be mobilized. As a matter of fact, when I talk to asset holders, to investors, then they are even actively searching for opportunities to invest in these fields. So I think the money is waiting on the streets that we pick up by us in order to catalyze them, catalyze it into productive investments. And we share CDB's vision for a transformation approach to investments in the region. Only transformation will be the basis for the protection of future generations from the challenges ahead. This year, we haven't to chair the group of the multilateral development banks and in this context, we hope to cooperate closely with CDB as well. Climate and environment is a key area of focus. Adaptation is in its multiple dimensions and the related MDB's role in supporting a just transition are just some important issues ahead of COP 27, which we presently prepare intensively, like I did today with the Egyptian minister. So as part of the MDB collective, we have been focusing on the development of a more coordinated support for the preparation and implementation of long-term, low greenhouse gas emissions, climate informed development strategies at national, sectoral, and subnational levels. And joint long-term strategy facility would represent a great package for the MDB's at COP 27 in Shambhal shake. So finally, we see a growing relevance of nature and biodiversity for climate-related discussions. It is particularly important to leverage these synergies as MDBs have an important role to play. And we are looking forward to playing this all together with CDB. Much. I will ask a question later about the expectation of the private sector with respect to returns on their investment. But I want to make sure that we are on track with our questions. So I'm going to go to President Claver Carone and I will come back later if we have some time to get that addressed. President Claver Carone, what are the challenges to MDB's, such as IDB and CDB, in partnering with the private sector as they seek to deliver on development outcomes? Similarly, since your arrival at the IDB, you have stated that it's a priority of yours to improve the value proposition of the IDB, to move from the diagnosis of issues to implementing solutions, and to make the IDB a bank of action. Are there valuable lessons that you can suggest to us from an IDB perspective related to the IDB invest and the private sector at any other project which you think falls in this category? You have the floor. You guys are muted. Okay, now I was muted. I apologize. And thank you so much for having me. I'm currently, I literally just got here to Paris from Los Angeles, I was at the Summit of the Americas and speaking to partners. I appreciate my friend Remy Renu here at the French Development Agency at FD for lending us his home to be able to do this here from Paris. Of course, we don't run the IT systems here, so we're kind of like learning and I apologize for some of the hiccups we've had. But I just came from Los Angeles where we hosted an event at the Summit of the Americas in regards to a trade near-shoring integration. We had over 25 trade and commerce ministers, over about half a dozen foreign ministers, and 100 multinationals that were present. The biggest event of its kind in over 20 years in the region where the stars seem to be aligning after the shutdowns from COVID in Asia, China. And then now what we're seeing with the supply chains in regards to food and energy after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So this is an important time, a unique time for the region, a unique opportunity, and we're really moving at full speed to really help take advantage of this opportunity to have a development impact, growth impact, to generate jobs opportunities in Latin America and in the Caribbean in particular in this manner. Since I am the first president of the IDB in 62 years that comes that is a coastal president. All the presidents of the IDBs have been from inland in South America or Mexico. I'm from Miami, so I have a coastal feel. I'm as the closest to the Caribbean of any president history of the IDB. And it was part of my agenda. It was part of my commitment when I ran to raise the profile of the Caribbean within the bank. And indeed, we have done so and I'm very proud of the work we have done. As a matter of fact, I'm really excited that this year in 2022, our pipeline for the six countries that we serve in the Caribbean is going to reach a new record. We're actually tripling the most ever. It's going to be about 16 projects amounting to almost $1.2 billion in 2022. And that's a big deal. And so we are really focused on the Caribbean. We actually said this year is going to be the year of the Caribbean in this regards. And there's a lot of work to be done and we're excited. And in regards to the Caribbean Development Bank, let me just say something. And this could be controversial, but that wouldn't be me if it weren't. The most important partnership I have with any development bank, any regional development bank is the Caribbean Development Bank. It is my priority. And why is not because I like one better than the other, et cetera, is because here's a reality. Only six of the countries of the Caribbean are members of the Inter-American Development Bank. There's about a dozen others that are not, but they are members of the Caribbean Development Bank. And we want to support them and we want to help them. So the way that we can help most of these Eastern Caribbean island nations that so much need our help and our support as well. But for whatever reason, through history and time, have not become members of the Inter-American Development Bank, which by the way I would love to increase that membership at some time and they're welcome to, is by helping support strengthen the Caribbean Development Bank and working through the Caribbean Development Bank. And that is something that Gene and I have spoken about since day one. We are fully aligned and he has no better partner in his endeavor than us in the Inter-American Development Bank. But let me go straight to your question. Look, I since day one of my presidency stated that the recovery of Latin America and the Caribbean will be private sector-led. And the scale of the challenges we've talked about, the financing gaps are just too large, too large for the public sector to tackle. As Gene said, these are trillion-dollar problems and we're a billion-dollar institution. Although we're proud that we were now, we did a $23.4 billion in financing last year. The first president to break the $20 billion gap, we've actually almost doubled it. And there's some news that you'll see and you're probably already seeing which, you know, the new normal, we're going to go from $12.17. I had Rand saying that $20 billion should be the new normal and it's looking like $25 or $30 billion could be the new normal. But there's also opportunities here. And this is why this is so important and the time is right for investments in our region. Green infrastructure, near-shoring, everything that we've talked about, the private sector has to play, will play an essential role in realizing that. Today what we're doing at the IDB is really looking to unleash the private sector's development power to bring our additionality to these countries more than ever. And that's at the core of what we've presented and was unanimously approved by our governors now in our intermediate markets as the new value proposition of the bank. I can't tell you how excited. I don't know like, you know, it's just my natural energy, but I'm generally excited about the historical forms that were approved at that time earlier this year and that really have set us in the pathway to become a 21st century business model and to be a disruptor in the way that international financial institutions have dealt with the public, with the private sector, and mobilizing from the private sector. What we're looking to do with this model is to like really create new financial tools, better integrated continuum. You know, we're the only world bank in ourselves. We have the merged out private sector arms. IDB invests in our case. Obviously, I have seen the other. And we're the one that has an innovation laboratory. So IDB, our innovation laboratory, IDB lab, and then our private sector arm, IDB invest, how we can create that continuum and strengthen it. That's going to help us expand on a business friendly effort to strengthen those value chains, digitalization, which is going to get at the heart of informality. The first time we have a tool to generally break down some of those barriers of informality, green finance, social priorities, obviously gender quality, which is so key. And actually in that regards, the Caribbean is an example and could be a leader for the rest of Latin America. Some of those corporate leaders that we're out in LA at the trade and investment forum this week are also parts of what we call our private sector coalition. We started that a year ago, it's the largest private sector coalition in the history of the bank. We started with 40 companies, the 40 biggest companies in the world. It now has 160 of the world's top companies. They're committed to working with us to advance that digital transformation, women's empowerment, environmental sustainability, the value chains is what we call Vision 2020 Ref. And they're working with us on a daily basis, not just about, you know, give us a one-off project is literally continuously communicating with them or what they're seeing on the ground, etc. So that's helping us create these new tools. And that's why last year IB Invest was able to mobilize more private funding than any time in any year in the history of the bank, almost $3 billion worth, and we're going to set our sights even higher. And I don't know if you saw yesterday during President Biden's remarks in the Summit of the Americas, but one of the deliverables that he mentioned and focused on was increasing, strengthening the United States position in our private sector on IB Invest to help create an accountable increase there. So we're going to grow that. We're going to grow that to really be able to address the middle-income challenges of preserving, and the challenges that also affect countries in the Caribbean in particular that are kind of caught under this macro framework of high income. And then a lot of the developing financial institutions aren't even able to support like the DFC, the United States, etc. We are, and we want to be able to do so. And the more capital we have to do so, we're going to have a great opportunity. So we're going to make this with the biggest public private sector push in the 60-year history of the bank. So let me just tell you real quick, from our experience, making this push is really about realizing the scale of the opportunity and sustainable investment needs to generate that positive social impact. The ESG market, Werner hit it on the head. This is huge, right? We're seeing analytics. In 2021, I think it was 120 billion that was poured into sustainable investments. That's more than double the 2020 total. BlackRock had done a survey that over 50% of investors are considering sustainable investment as critical. Investors are going to double that proportion of sustainable investments in their portfolio to almost 40% by 2025. I mean, this is proving to generate higher returns. And so we're seeing that the estimates to others, the sustainable equity funds are outperforming traditional peer funds by almost five points. I mean, we have to expect this is going to become an even greater force in the future. And now as companies are looking for the best places to make those investments, they need two things. Stable trustworthy business environments and partners who really know the territory and can execute projects on the ground. And in the current global context that we're seeing with the war, Russia's war in Ukraine, the lockdowns in China, our region has more to offer than ever in terms of stability. Democracy said here yesterday that this is like a sea of peace and tranquility amongst the Germans and the rest of the world. And now our goal is to turn that peace and tranquility into prosperity as well for the region. So we have that opportunity. Regional MDBs like the Caribbean, the Belgnbank and ourselves, we're in an unbeatable position, unique position that only match up investors with governments, but it catalyzed those individual projects. We're doing so in so many fronts. We're working with the governments to build up those investment climates, regulatory reforms, digitalizing government so they can be more transparent. Pro-transparency initiative is generally working with companies that want to shift their strategy toward greater alignment, sustainability, pipeline of bankable projects that are appetizing private investors. We have to originate. That's part of our new business model for IDB Invest 2.0, originating, de-risking, distributing portfolios, really becoming pioneering projects with demonstration effect to reduce perceived risks in critical sectors, energy, logistics, transportation, highly valuable approaches here, which is what we seek. And we're doing that in an aggressive way, directly reaching out to the private sector. One last thing. I mean, we've been reaching out to this coalition that I mentioned, and we've really innovated the use of this private public dialogue. We have the America's business dialogue and online platforms like Connect America to match a lot of the emerging business with new international markets. And what we're seeing as a result is like really enabling an environment that's right for opportunities for such involvement. And that's really what led to the record mobilizations that I mentioned last year. And by the way, in the huge opportunity, and I'm going to finish with this, in the huge opportunity for the ESG markets, and indeed Werner in the European Investment Bank, was the leader in creating those green bonds. What our goal is now after following EIB's leadership in that regards, and it's become now this huge, a good monster. I don't want to say monster in a good way, but this huge tool, what we now have to do is how we can catalyze and how we can bring it here. And while they obviously created this green box, we created what's now kind of what we call the green bond transparency index, so that therefore investors can be looking at ways to combat this whole new greenwashing challenge, et cetera, in order to deal with it. So anyhow, I'm going to end there and appreciate the opportunity. So much I think that that was more than we expected, much more than we expected. We really are impressed by the kind of work you're doing, particularly in the private sector, and how you have incorporated the Development Bank and the private sector into a very active arrangement for the benefit of the whole of Latin America. But we want the Caribbean to be part of it too, and I am sure that with continued discussions on this matter, that will be achieved as well. And we have to move on, though, however, to Dr. Smith, who served as president of the Caribbean Development Bank during the global financial crisis. And we want to ask him, as well as during the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, he was still president. What lessons can you share in navigating these crises? Dr. Smith, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Dr. Williams. First of all, let me thank President Lyon for inviting me to be a part of this panel. There are familiar faces in the meeting here this morning. The president of the EIB, I had the privilege of meeting with him in his office some years ago in which we had discussions around support for the Caribbean Development Bank in relation to climate issues, CDB's capacity to respond to climate issues. That relationship progressed very, very well. And I think there were three different areas of funding that came through from the EIB during the period when I was in office. And I was very, very, very happy to hear that the president said that there's a whole lot more that's going to be done through the Caribbean Development Bank. As far as the IDB is concerned, we have also in the CDB, I keep saying we, we've always had a very, very good relationship with that institution. And we were able to co-finance with them on a number of important projects. And during the Great Recession, we found ourselves in a situation where we had to examine very, very carefully what were the types of mechanisms that were necessary to support fiscal and debt sustainability in our countries, including support for fiscal reforms that is technical assistance that will create the necessary fiscal space. These mechanisms included and continue to include policy-based loans and debt restructuring. These were some of the, the facilities that we used in order to help the countries during the period of the Great Recession. As a result of the Great Recession and the consequential failure of large financial institutions, the rating agencies became more stringent in their oversight requiring an upgrade in the internal risk management of the Caribbean Development Bank. In other words, there were lessons learned on the side of the countries that we served. But there was also lessons, there were also lessons to be learned in the internal management of the Caribbean Development Bank. From an institutional standpoint, the main lessons learned were that CDB, with its small size and serving relatively weak and vulnerable borrowing members, needs to ensure that it has a strong balance sheet, good risk management, and a cadre of dedicated staff who have a good understanding of the region that they serve. In short, the institutions that are partners with CDB, they also need to have the comfort that we, meaning the CDB, is a strong partner and that the CDB will be in a position to be able to repay the loans that have been provided through our partners. Coming to the issue of the period 2012 to 2021, the other big event, of course, was COVID-19. COVID-19 was a pandemic. It started out as a pandemic. In one sector, there's a dependency on one sector for our small BMCs. Sorry, let me just back up here. The dependency on one sector for our small BMCs is fraught with risk and increases vulnerability. We have seen this to a lesser extent after 9-11. The first lesson we learned from the pandemic was that diversification of our economies is critical to the sustainability of our BMCs. What started out as a health crisis quickly emerged as one of the major economic crises to impact our borrowing members, particularly those dependent on revenues and foreign exchange earnings from a single sector. For example, our tourism-dependent economies faced almost immediate impacts as in the midst of widespread lockdowns globally, airlines drastically reduced flights and cruise lines had difficulty even finding ports for discharging passengers and crews. Borrowing member governments had to have fiscal space and borrowing headroom in this type of global crisis. To one, increase expenditure for the heightened healthcare required, including for isolation and quarantine facilities, vaccination, increases in healthcare providers, PPP, etc. And two, they had to respond to the widespread unemployment experienced in sectors such as tourism and the consequential knock-on effects for the wider economy and increased poverty levels. Social safety nets where they existed required replenishment from central government coffers requiring additional support from multilateral financial institutions such as CDB. In 2020, CDB approved $182 million to allow BMCs to cope with the fallout of the pandemic and other shocks. IDB provided a further $50 million for OECS countries for the COVID-19 response. Within the health and education sectors, supporters provided for the purchase of PPE, that is personal protective equipment, the purchases of tablets, computers, and other equipment to facilitate online education. Micro-small and medium-sized enterprises, MSMEs as we call them, and the creative industries were particularly impacted and received grant support from the Caribbean Development Bank. Food security merged as a major concern as supply chain issues became evident during lockdowns, shipping costs skyrocketed, making product inputs more costly when available within our region. A closer look had to be taken at self-reliance as no one BMC could do it alone. Turning quickly to the climate front, the need to raise preferably grant and or highly concessional loan resources to support and advance activities associated with climate adaptation and immigration of climate impacts had to be addressed. In parallel, we learned that new and innovative financing mechanisms were necessary to facilitate the shift to renewable forms of energy and to promote energy efficiency. We learned that financial resources had to be backed up with technical hands-on support as the expertise in the region was still evolving. We also learned that accessing concessional resources is not easy. Each source of funding has its own set of rules and processes. It is iterative, time and resource consuming, and for a small institution like CDB with even smaller BMCs. Collaboration with larger and better resource development agencies gives the region the access to the required resources. In the context of high oil prices, there is always heightened interest in RE and EE investments by investors, financiers and consumers. However, sustaining this interest when oil prices are falling requires much more effort in education, awareness building and culture change. CDB established the renewable energy and energy efficiency unit in the Office of the Vice President of Operations in 2014 with technical support from the GIZ, the German technical organization. This unit worked closely with the environmental sustainability unit to promote climate action as a cross-cutting theme in the Bank's strategy and work program. This means in each sector infrastructure, education, agriculture, opportunities to incorporate sustainable energy options were examined and included in project design. Dr Warren, could you wrap up for us soon? Yes, I can think of a strong push across the OECS utilizing resources from EU and DFID to replace inefficient street lamps with LED lamps to cut energy consumption for street lighting by at least 50%. In a high energy price environment, the savings realized from these projects could repay the investment cost in very short order. In collaboration with IDB, the sustainable energy facility CEPH was launched. This was an innovative financing mechanism utilizing resources that allowed BMCs to explore geothermal potential utilizing financing that would convert to grant if the potential was not realized. Thank you. Oh, thank you very much. That was very real and recalled for many of us some of the difficulties that we experienced both during the, let's see, just before the COVID, we had some problems as well. So the period includes both the COVID as well as the problems with the tourism sector being seriously affected as a result of our dependence on the single sector. Thank you very much. We are going to go to our second round of questions and I think President Hoyer is still here so we can ask him to speak first if he's here. I'm here. Yes, thank you very much President Hoyer. We are going to deal with specific topics now and the one here is climate change. Climate change is a major global challenge and its impact has been more pronounced in smaller island developing states. How can regional multilateral development banks such as CDB gain access to the billions committed to climate finance to assist in reducing these vulnerabilities and building resilience? What proactive steps are being pursued by the EIB to address this issue? Let me first of all say that the region that CDB is covering is probably among those regions least contributing to the causes of climate change or greenhouse gas emissions but on the other hand most hit by the consequences. So there is a need to be very active and there is a need to cooperate and this is what we are ready to do closely. We need enormous amounts of money. There is no doubt about that for this climate issue but also for the SDGs in general and everybody who is so a state believer or a budget believer that he believes these things can be paid out of taxpayers money is illusionary. We need to mobilize the private markets and as we had heard before this is possible. The ESG orientation on the capital markets has increased tremendously in the last four or five years. I remember a Davos meeting a couple of years ago when all of a sudden I was sitting in a seminar with President Trump of South Africa and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and all of a sudden I saw that next to me there was the head of the big private Swiss bank. I said what the heck are you doing here? This is on climate and he said this is exactly what my investors my asset holders expect from us making offers on investments into these areas. So the market is there. However what we are talking about and we are very much aware of this in EIB is it is not only about financial resources it's also about the overcoming of capacity constraints. We need to offer a package of lending, lending and advising. We have developed this inside the European Union our advisory hub was established exactly for this purpose. It supports the identification, preparation, development, structuring, procurement and implementation of investment projects and I think we need to develop something like this with our friends in the Caribbean as well. I need to show to sell you that we are in an unusual position because our bank has an enormous balance sheet of close to 700 billion dollars but if you look at the cash injection that our shareholders, the member state of the European Union made, you are at less than 25 billion dollars and plus there is a contingent liability of which are taken up by the member state of the European Union. So in order to finance all the roughly 100 billion euros of projects every year the EIB group is bringing to the market we need to tap markets and we need the investors. So we sell 7 to 90 billion euros of bonds every year in the capital markets. Why do these investors give us their money? They are not stupid and we are not a grant provider. We are in bank, we lend money and we want the money back so the investors know that. The criterion, the condition for reaching these investors and gaining their trust is that we have a high technical and scientific expertise. We are a scientist and engineer and German bank and that if you can show that then you can produce some belief that the projects we finance will be sustainable and economically viable. This is the condition for our business model and I think we can talk about these things with our friends in the MDB community as well. I think basically they need to do the same and they're doing the same. We need to mobilize with intelligence means the private sector. As far as the activities outside Europe are concerned early 2022 was an important point of time in our history. We launched EIB Global a specialized new organization within the EIB group designed to foster strong, focused partnership and increased development impact and in practice EIB Global means new financial instruments, more risk appetite and more people on the ground to support the EIB's climate action and sustainable development objectives. As you can see, we are doing everything or power to mobilize the billions in climate finance that the world has committed to achieving. Again, partnership is key. I'll give you an example. We have built partnerships with organizations like the Global Center on Adaptation. You leverage knowledge as Dr. Smith has said, knowledge and to accelerate access to climate finance together. For example, there is the Africa Adaptation and Acceleration Program an initiative developed through the vision and foresight of the African Development Bank to scale up adaptation action in Africa by mobilizing $25 billion in investment. So these I could bring more examples of this kind and I think it is encouraging that by pulling together and by pulling our resources we can achieve a lot. We should not be too timid in saying we are going to tap the private markets for this. Yes, thank you very much. There's something you said there about the expectation from the private sector that the projects must be economically viable and in the Caribbean that is going to be a challenge because of our small scale and so on unless we buy into big projects where they can become economically viable. But we have to find ways to tap into the big markets because the small scale is not going to do it. We have to ally ourselves in some way to the big projects, particularly because and we need the small projects as well. Sometimes if you talk to startup companies, they are much more creative than the big tankers and we need to have that as well. In order to keep this going, we need to buy the products. Yeah, we need both. Okay, let's move on to President Claver Carone. You were unable to finish your presentation earlier. So we have you again to speak and our question is how can the private sector assist with the sustainable energy transition and what initiatives does the IDB have to encourage private sector participation? No, you can add some of the things that were unsaid in your earlier presentation because I sort of had to bring things to a close there. So you have the floor. Thank you so much and I'll be agile. I wanted to follow up on what Werner said and indeed two things. One, four out of five countries in the world most affected by climate events are in the Caribbean and Central America. So indeed it is the biggest victim. I said it is a victim of this issue and indeed and also we launched now at COP26. We launched the first blue bond in the Caribbean and we're proud of some of the work that we're doing in that fund and indeed this is key in that regards. With regards to your question in particular, I think we have a comprehensive strategy to really encourage that private investment in every aspect of the energy transition. We had something called the little carbon energy fund for people on planet and that's an example of how we use an institutional partnership in this case with Rockefeller Foundation to leverage private resources in order to really find universal and help with universal access to services. That includes that non-reimbursable contribution side from Rockefeller Foundation to really then finance the IDV group operations. We have in this regard, just with this partnership, investment projects particularly for access to electricity in about a dozen countries in Latin America and in the Caribbean in particular with Guyana, Suriname and with Haiti in this regard. So the way we do it here is we start with technical assistance to help governments really become much more attractive to companies in the sustainable energy sector. I'll give you a bigger example. Although in the Caribbean in Colombia, we supported an ambitious energy reform that introduced instruments such as better energy options to attract those private investors and wind and solar. I think we've lost you. Are you there? In particular deployed to the private sector via some of the... President Corone, good, good, good. Yeah. Okay, if you're about to come to a close. Yeah, yeah, give me one second. Give me one second. In this regard, because I think we've had some good examples with Belize and wind power, et cetera. Let me just say one thing because I had some more things, but I want to wrap it up in this regard. I think there's a lot of examples of how we can be positive here, but I want to close on a controversial note because also it's important. While we're doing a whole bunch of stuff and if I had more time, I can give you a whole list of things that we're doing in the Caribbean in this regard and focusing on the sustainable side. But there's also a really... The most challenging, I think the most challenging, but the most of the greatest opportunity in development right now in the entire region poses some really tough questions, and that's in the case of Guyana. And then how do we work with a country like Guyana, which is in a different stage of its development and is on path to become the world's largest for capital producer of oil and gas, yet in this new world that we live in and ensuring that it has a sustainable energy transition and that it's not punished in its development needs in this regards. And that delicate balance that we have with Guyana is a unique opportunity there. Another example there, and we got to get it right, and that's a key because if we get it right there, it's going to be an example for the rest of the world, and that's why I'm so highly focused on working hand in hand with Guyana to not punish it and its development capability unique in this time, but helping it to ensure that it is sustainable and that it does have a part of its transition. And the other example here that's really interesting in these times we live in is Trinidad and Tobago. It's the only time that we're looking for alternative sources of natural gas, et cetera. There's only two countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are exporting natural gas. One is Peru and the other is Trinidad and Tobago, although very little, but also fertilizers, which is so key in this regards with the new world. So how do we, we have to work then also with these countries to make sure that they are, that we help them in their development path, but then address their transition needs in that regards. That is the most exciting, the most challenging, but one of the biggest opportunities we have in the region today. So I'm going to close on that controversial note. Thank you very much. Well, we are very encouraged by the fact that you have been doing these transitions quite successfully elsewhere. So hopefully we will get the same results in the Caribbean from IDB. Thank you very much. We need, we should call now on Dr. Spist, to complete his presentation. You're speaking about the question. Let me add the second part of the question. You have dealt with two previous crises and the world is now grappling with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which is creating food supply shortages and increased inflationary pressures. What are some of the emerging challenges that you foresee for the region and the CDB itself? And how can multilateral development banks assist in mitigating, in proactively mitigating against some of these risks? You've done, you've presented a number of things already on what we have done. We're asking you now about what can we do in the event of the new challenges as well as look at the Russia-Ukraine conflict and what we can do there. Thank you. Okay. Thanks very much, Marion. The challenges facing the Caribbean in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia conflict are as follows. One, the high prices from oil and natural gas resulting in hikes in end-user prices for gasoline and diesel with implications for transportation costs, electricity costs, production costs, and ultimately resulting in higher food prices. The other issue relates to increased poverty and a setback in realizing the targets for achieving the SDGs. These are some of the issues that are going to affect our region. Poor and vulnerable communities are already experiencing negative impacts even as Caribbean countries struggle to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19. Increased food insecurity has supplied chain disruptions which began with the pandemic are exacerbated by this war affecting availability of commodities including inputs for animal feeds. There's also been reduced availability of grant and other concessionary resources available to developing countries from the developed countries as resources are diverse across the war effort. What are some of the strategies that MDBs can employ to manage these risks? First, there needs to be an accelerated shift to renewables. The mobilization of available grants and highly concessional and innovative funding by MDBs are needed to accelerate the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in our member countries. There are encouraging investment, private investment opportunities in renewables. The creation of an enabling investment climate to support private investment in the energy sector. This requires technical support to DMCs, borrowing members that is, for government policy, regulation, technical training, negotiation slash legal skills for preparation of power purchase agreements and other legal documents. There's also the need for increasing food security. The focus on support for increasing inter-regional food production and trade is one of the opportunities. This entails examination of the necessary infrastructure to facilitate farm-to-market and export transportation. Now there was a very encouraging meeting that took place recently in Carycom. Looking at Guyano's capacity for developing food for the rest of the region, for Guyano itself and for the rest of the region. And I think that that has been the result of the Guyanes having sat down and carefully examined what is required to be able to have a modern agriculture sector, one that can produce the products that are needed domestically, but the products that also are needed in the rest of the Caribbean. That I think is a good starting point. But it's going to need support from the multilaterals. And I think that it's an excellent time for us to become engaged in these types of endeavors. Thank you ever so much. And our final presenter from among our distinguished presidents is President Jean Leon. And he has been advocating for a financing ecosystem to cover the range of development needs in the Caribbean. What is required to make this a reality, President? Thanks, Marianne. The answer to that is two words. One, we have to be bold. And two, we have to create it. And let me explain here. We say it's a financing ecosystem, but it should not be lost on us that you do not create finance for its own sake. Finance has to have a purpose. And therefore, it is that purpose that drives the finance. And I think we've heard elements of that in both of the interventions from both my good friend Mauricio as well as President Hoy from the EIB. Because it takes three things to make a financing ecosystem work. You need to have demand in terms of a pipeline of investable projects. You need to have now the adequacy of the supply to meet that demand at the appropriate price or return as you opposed it. And there has to be an environment. And that environment has to be such that it can produce the confidence that President Hoy talked about, confidence of investors that it is worthwhile continuing to provide the supply. And so I think this is where when we say we need a financing ecosystem, we need something that is capable of sustaining a flow of investment, demand, and at the same time, investable supply of resources to match that in a way that can provide the ultimate purpose, the ultimate goal that we are looking for. So that's where we are focused in terms of how it happens. It happens, I think, if we can one, work on being able to warehouse, whether it's through pre-feasibility, feasibility studies, working with partners around the globe on projects that can unlock the keys to the development goals that we have. So that's sort of one area. And the only way I think you do this is by ensuring that what we have is a partnership with the private sector. Along the lines, as Mauricio was describing, how do you get the private sector to be involved at the initiating stage, at the design stage, at the implementation and fabrication stage, in the monitoring stage, such that there can be that sense of completeness from start to finish in the overall involvement as development partners, not as partners doing what they would like to do in the background, or adding finance at the end of the day, as we do now in our conventional PPP type endeavors, but being partners from the beginning through to the end. So that is how we see integrating the private sector into that space as being an essential part of that financing ecosystem, both in the productive capacity side and in the financing side. The second, I think, is we need to be able to do more and better with what we have. And so while we talk a lot about concessional finance, I think we need to see that there are two aspects to this. Concessional finance is not just about providing lower return. I think it is the outcome that is important here. And so we think in terms of making it happen, we need to flip the way we think about this. It is not just let's get finance at a low rate, but let's de-risk what we would like to do. And if we de-risk what we would like to do, conversely, we improve the risk profile of ourselves, then automatically lower cost, more affordable finance actually provides that link that you need. And so the focus I think should be on a set of policies, a set of reforms that can generate that lower risk profile and thereby make it more appealing to private sector entities to want to be able to enter that development space either on their own or jointly with the public sector such that the goals can be attained with the appropriate return that we are looking at. So that's a way of increasing what I want to call concessional or more affordable finance than just focusing on the price, which is lower requirements in terms of Premier. There's a third dimension to that is while we already have a substantial pool of resources that are available, we need to be able to use them better. And there I can think of two elements that we need to address. The first is the allocation mechanism. The allocation mechanism in principle says the funding that is at lower cost is done through a medium of income. And that commonly our gross national income of countries, what we do know is that this is not the best use because gross national income does not map into financing need and does not map into the peculiarities of countries like ours that have extreme vulnerabilities and have great impacts when crises do occur. And so what we at the bank have been pushing is to translate this from gross national income to some concept of resilience capacity. And if we have a way of mapping resilience capacity, we can in principle say those with greater need irrespective of the income because we know for sure a hurricane does not choose your income, it simply devastates you irrespective whether you are rich or poor. If we focus on that resilience capacity, then in principle we can get a better utilization of those funds that are already there that are concessionary. The second I think in terms of what's already there is to redirect the use of our excess SDRs. And I say our because the IMF in its last allocation gave to all countries in the world 650 billion SDRs. And I say gave because it's almost like a gift that is now looking to be used from within the IMF. And what is a big debate at this point is should some of those funds be channeled through development banks such that they can be deployed with potentially greater effect, one to be able to bridge the gap between stabilization and long term development. But at the same time, to be able to leverage this in a way that is at a much higher level than if it were done through deployment directly through a SDR type of instrument from the IMF. And so in all of those areas, whether it is more sovereign, whether it is more de-risking, whether it is better reallocation or bringing in the private sector, what you end up with is a multi-sourced, multi-instrument infrastructure that allows for the building of confidence and therefore provide overall sustainability. And so when I say we need to build it, we need to be able to learn from all of the experiences that exist now and craft, create an instrument and an ecosystem that is now uniquely capable of meeting the needs of the region. And it is not the case. I don't think it is true to argue that we cannot get strong returns in the region. We can. And we can because we simply need to focus on scale. We need to focus on efficiency. And we need to look at large transformative projects that can benefit the entire region as a whole. So it is how we create it. And if we do that well, I think we have an excellent opportunity to undertake that transformation we are talking about. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for coming to a close at a time when we need a few minutes to include the audience. There is a lot that was said there. And I think that we need to make sure that we make your recommendations materialized. They are very important for small island states who are so vulnerable. We have to find another means of judging your eligibility for funding. Okay. Another way other than GDP on GMP. Let us now invite some of the audience. We have a number of online listeners. And we would want to invite them to ask a few questions. We are very limited. We have 15 minutes before we can close. But I will give them 10 minutes and then we'll have a five minute wrap up. Can we open to the yes. And let me let me give to presidents the final question which we would want an answer in one minute. And it is this many developing countries are behind in achieving the SDGs by the 2030 timeline. And the major obstacle revolves around implementation. Tell us about one critical step that you would wish to see employed to accelerate implementation in one minute. But not right now in a month in one minute after we hear from the floor. Thank you. And we will come to each each president. Can we have the floor please. We have a quest a question from Christopher China pool. How is equity and inclusion being addressed in the innovative financing models? How is equity as a concept embedded into the AAA financing concept and the models being deployed by other multinational development banks? Is this the only question? Is it is it posed to a particular president? Hello. It doesn't seem to be posed to a particular president. So anyone can answer it. Let me repeat it again. How is equity and inclusion being addressed in the innovative financing models? And how is equity as a concept embedded into the AAA financing concept and the models being deployed by other multinational development banks? And he hasn't asked any particular president so anyone can address. Floor is open to you. Yes, Dr. Glover, you have the floor. Dr. Carol, yes. Where is he? He's not here. Dr. Hoyer then. Yeah, with pleasure. Would we be sitting here 50 years ago? People would have a smile on their face with that question. This has fundamentally changed. I mean, we live in a world where attention given to equity and inclusion is key. And if I want to bring the project through the board of directors of my bank, which consists of representatives of the governments of the 27 member states of the European Union, then I better have a focus on these issues as a condition for their approval. So it is getting more and more important. We are not where we should be, of course. But I think the awareness for this dimension has incredibly increased. Okay. Thank you very much. Do we have any other comments on this one? Let us go around the table then for the one minute responses to the other question. Shall I read it again? Many developing countries are behind in achieving the SDGs by the 2030 timeline and the major obstacle revolves around implementation. Tell us about one critical step that you would wish to see employed to accelerate implementation. Who wants to go first? Shall we go in the order in which we've... Oh, let's see. Let's have Dr. Leon. No, no, we're going to have you last because you're the host. Mr. Claver Caron, president, are you here still? Is he here? He's gone? No, he's not here. All right. Dr. Warren, would you like to speak on that one? Yes, please. Yes, thank you very much, chair. The issue of implementation has been a long-standing one. And I think the CDB has experienced it in a big way. And I think it is, if you were to look across the other multilaterals, you'll find that it's a challenge for all of them. The in-depth assessment for each BMC of where the implementation deficits and bottlenecks lie during project preparation and implementation is an approach that I think is necessary. Is the decision-making process in-country adding to inordinate delays? I would also argue that implementation support is required at each stage and training of staff has to be involved in the project management. Thank you very much. That is definitely the response of a practitioner who has been there and done that. Very good. Thank you very much. Can we have Dr. Hoyer? With pleasure. Thank you very much. I must say I subscribe to everything Warren Smith has just said. So this is probably knowledge we share and I think we strongly support it. On the other hand, I must say that the European Union recognizes capacity constraints that many emerging economies face, especially also in small island states. There are many competing priorities that must be dealt with. So there must be a clear sense of priorities, not from us, but from the political leaders in the relevant countries. We are in a very favorable situation as EIB, as the EU Bank, that we can blend the grant capacity of the European Union and the lending capacity of the EU Bank. And this brings the difference. For instance, we can pay for experts to work with governments and utilities to prepare and implement projects. Right now in the Caribbean, for instance, we have 16 million euros available in grants to support climate resilience and clean oceans, thanks to the cooperation with our colleagues in the European Commission. So our idea is always to try to leverage on the grant capacity that the European Union can provide, because with grants alone, we will not get the deal done. Okay. Thank you very much. That is very true. With grants alone, you won't get the deal done, because the investor is looking for something on his investment. Yes. Is Dr. Claver Coorouns back? He's not back. Okay. Well, we'll have to go to Jean then. Jean is perfect. Let me add a couple of perspectives to what both Warren and President have said, because one implementation issues span both the agency or the institution, the financing institution, like the CDB, the MDBs, but equally the government side, because that is how you end up with implementation. It has to be both. And so the issues of process that Warren mentioned, I think whole, and we can say process clearly needs to be improved wherever to be able to help the implementation aspects. But there is a people component, which I think we cannot live out. And that is having a growth mindset that allows us to see how we can act with urgency, how we can adopt enterprise ethics. And I'm saying enterprise ethics in terms of the way you look at things, what the private sector would do. Is there a way we can emulate that? And equally the concept of accepting failure, because a lot of times we drag and procrastinate and don't do because of a fear of failure. And if we can blend those three together, we can begin to tackle the people side of that to go with the process side. And then the third, I think, is the concept of adaptation and monitoring. Because if we cannot do that well and do it adequately, there is no way you can, in essence, either fix or move the implementation aspects in any reasonably quick enough to make a change. So it is the whole combination of the process, the people, the adaptation, the monitoring blended together at both the MDB level and the government levels that I think can begin to make a serious change on the implementation deficit issue. Thank you very much. Those are good words and good advice. We have to look at the process, the people, the adaptation and the monitoring and so on. There's a whole package that has to change in order to ensure that we deliver on implementation as well. Now, we have come to this summary. I am going to just give you a few points and some key messages, which are the key for us, which we think resulted from this discussion. Firstly, attaining the sustainable development goals requires that we focus our efforts on building resilient ecosystems. Gene, I'm sure you would agree with that. Addressing energy transition, climate change and food security are key priorities that our regions face, but these are even more urgent for small island developing states. And I can affirm that both in reality and in my work as well, because the small island developing states have dominated my thinking for many years. Multilateral development banks need to engage in even more knowledge sharing and must forge strong partnerships to finance and accelerate development outcomes. Substantial financing resources are needed to attain the sustainable development goals by 2030. And the private sector has a key role to play in delivery and financing of development outcomes. I think that's our biggest hurdle, how to get the private sector to be involved. We are looking forward to increased collaboration with the private sector. And we hope that some of these thoughts, which were expressed today, will be actually conveyed to members of the private sector at some point. I'm not sure how we will do that, but I'm sure that the CDB can find a way. And therefore, this event and the ideas that were exchanged here could become more universal, perhaps? Perhaps universal, depending on our coverage. So in closing, let me thank President Leon. Let me thank President Hoyer and President Claver Carone and Dr. Smith for stimulating discussion on the possible approaches to handling the challenges that which we identified. I also extend thanks to our audience for the short, but useful contribution. We only had one question, but anyway, it was a very interesting one. And we look forward to the participation of the audience in future CDB seminars. Thank you all. Thank you. Great pleasure. Thank you. Okay, we are most welcome. And we are buying on the dot.