Adva Saldinger

In what appears to be a first, the World Bank Group’s board has overruled its own independent watchdog. Last week, directors rejected a decision by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, or CAO — the International Finance Corporation’s independent accountability mechanism that handles complaints from communities harmed by the World Bank’s private-sector arm. It’s an extraordinary step that raises fresh questions about the future of accountability at the institution.

Plus, the G7 on development finance, dissecting the recently released data on private capital mobilization, and what the Asian Development Bank looks for when hiring. The latest step in the World Bank Group’s march toward becoming “One World Bank Group” isn’t about lending, guarantees, or organizational charts. It’s about accountability.

A new G20 debt template, a debt bill in New York, and more talk about Iran war impacts. We spend a lot of time in this newsletter talking about large institutions trying to move markets and large pools of capital. But development finance also works at the other end of the spectrum: helping people get access to the financial system in the first place.