Can Innovative Financing Help Close the Gap on the Millennium Development Goals?

As financial leaders and national representatives from around the globe converge upon Washington, D.C. for the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the Brookings Institution, in partnership with the development banks of France, Japan and Germany, will hold a briefing to examine the potential for innovative financial mechanisms to help close the gap between the lofty international goals and the grim realities of official aid budgets.

With advocates calling for huge increases in foreign assistance and major official donors confronting severe budgetary pressures at home, innovative financing mechanisms will be critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The briefing will be moderated by Lael Brainard, vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at Brookings, and will feature a dynamic group of panelists including: the Honorable Ngozi Okonjo, minister of finance for Nigeria; Michael Klein, chief economist, International Finance Corporation; David de Ferranti, distinguished visiting fellow at Brookings; Hiroto Arakawa, director general, Japan Bank for International Cooperation; Pierre Jacquet, executive director and chief economist, Agence Française de Développement; and Bruno Wenn, senior vice president, KfW Development Bank.

A question and answer session will follow remarks.