Index
Abstract – 2
Acknowledgements – 3
(1) Introduction – 4
(2) Historical evolution of the roles of PDBs – 4
(3) The evolving European financial architecture for development – 7
(4) An overview of three European national development banks: AFD, KfW and CDP – 14
(4.1) The French PDB: AFD – 14
(4.2) The German PDB: KfW – 16
(4.3) The Italian PDB: CDP – 18
(5) Conclusion – 19
References – 21
Abstract
Public development banks (PDBs) have taken the front stage in development narratives and endeavours at the international level and in Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened their role in the response to the crisis and recovery process towards building back better and greener, in more inclusive, gender sensitive, transformational and impactful ways.
The recent evolution of the European financial architecture for development (EFAD) has put European public development banks at the heart of the European development finance system in a more open, integrated and coordinated way. By doing so, European PDBs can reach out, under the ‘Team Europe’ banner, to external partners, promoting both impactful development and greater synergies and visibility of the EU actions. PDBs can be critical instruments to promote resilience to shocks and crises (financial, economic, pandemic, climate, etc.) and help both stabilise the economy and foster a more rapid long-lasting recovery, in particular if they can play a counter-cyclical role and help build back better. By providing medium- and long-term finance aligned to the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, they can contribute to more systemic transformations, helping build markets and foster innovation for impactful development. By working better together and with other international and local stakeholders, they can also contribute to mitigating risks and leveraging at scale private finance.
Interestingly, beyond development objectives, PDBs are also an instrument of development and economic diplomacy as well as of geostrategic power, promoting core values and interests as part of Europe’s foreign and economic policies, at the EU and national levels, and as illustrated in the case of France, Germany and Italy.
While each PDB in Europe is the result of a specific historical and institutional context, they all tend to have greater prominence in national and EU development processes and foreign policy objectives over the years. Mechanisms have also been established to enhance their coordination at the European level, within the EU framework and between themselves.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the Elcano Royal Institute and in particular to Iliana Olivié for stimulating and guiding this research as part of its series on PDBs. The research was conducted through the framework of the European Think Tank Group (ETTG), of which both Elcano and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) are members. The author would like to thank the participants of the internal webinar organised by Elcano, and in particular AECID’s Fernando Jiménez-Ontiveros and COFIDES’ Rodrigo Madrazo. This paper reflects the views of the author alone and should not be attributed to any specific institution.
(1) Introduction
Development finance, and PDBs in particular, have been attracting increasing attention due to their major role at the financial and economic levels, addressing an increasingly wide range of development challenges: socio-economic development and transformation, climate change, biodiversity, nature and ocean protection, human development and health in particular, food security and sustainability, and addressing poverty and inclusiveness, including in fragile and conflicted countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened the role of PDBs in the response to the crisis and recovery processes of building back better and greener, in more inclusive, gender sensitive, transformational and impactful ways.
The recent evolution of the European financial architecture for development (EFAD) has put European PDBs at the heart of the European development finance system in a more open, integrated and coordinated way. By doing so, European PDBs can reach out, under the ‘Team Europe’ banner, to external partners, promoting both impactful development and greater synergies and visibility of EU actions. PDBs can be critical instruments to promote resilience to shocks and crises (financial, economic, pandemic, climate, etc) and help both stabilise the economy and foster a faster long-lasting recovery, in particular if they can play a counter-cyclical role and help build back better. By providing medium- and long-term finance aligned to the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development they can contribute to more structural and systemic transformations, helping build up markets and fostering innovation for impactful development. By working better together and with other international and local stakeholders, they can also contribute to mitigate risks and leverage private finance.
Interestingly, beyond development objectives, PDBs are also an instrument of development and economic diplomacy, as well as geostrategic power, promoting core values and interests, as part of Europe’s foreign and economic policies, at the EU and national levels, as illustrated in the case of France, Germany and Italy.
While each PDB in Europe is the result of a specific historical and institutional context, they all tend to have greater prominence in national and EU development and foreign policy objectives over the years. Mechanisms are also established to enhance their coordination at the European level, within the EU framework and between themselves.
This paper outlines the evolution of the roles of PDBs in Europe and the EFAD, and discusses how they contribute to a range of strategic activities, related to development but also to geostrategic and policy objectives.
Sanoussi Bilal
Head of the Economic Transformation and Trade Programme at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) | @SanBilal1
