2 May 2023

In April, during the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, RTE and partners co-sponsored an event entitled ‘Making a real difference? Lessons from the financing of health and education for the World Bank Group’s Evolution Roadmap’. 

In the context of the meetings, the World Bank Group proposed its Evolution Roadmap to address development challenges including poverty, shared prosperity, and inequality, in addition to global issues such as climate change, pandemics, and conflict and violence. 

Consequently, the session sought to draw on evidence regarding the impact of different financing approaches on the provision of public services, in particular health and education, and to challenge participants to avoid past mistakes and to think beyond the numbers to address the quality and impacts of financing. 

Speakers included Professor Daniela Gabor, Professor of Economics and Macro-Finance, UWE Bristol; Anjela Taneja, Public Services Advocacy and Policy lead, Oxfam International; Allana Kembabazi, Programme Manager, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER); and Marialisa Motta, Independent Evaluation Group Manager, Financial, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development Unit at the World Bank. 

The event was co-organised by Right to Education Initiative, Oxfam, Wemos, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) Uganda, EACH rights, Society for International Development (SID), Stop Aids, Viva Salud, Akina Mama wa Afrika, CLADE, Education For All Sierra Leone (EFA-SL) Coalition, Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education (COTAE) Liberia, TaxEd Alliance, Action Aid, African Campaign Network for Education for All (ANCEFA), Arab Network Popular Education/Ecumenical Popular Education Program (ANPE/EPEP), Global Campaign for Education-US.