Redesigning Global Finance

January 30, 2025

In this episode of Redesigning Global Finance, we explore the evolving landscape of global financial governance, focusing on how institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and regional development banks are adapting to new economic realities and global crises. The episode examines how financial systems must evolve to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the transformative role of digital technologies such as cryptocurrencies, blockchain, AI, and fintech in reshaping financial infrastructure and promoting financial inclusion. At the same time, it addresses the regulatory, security, and governance challenges these innovations present. The discussion centers on the urgent reforms needed to ensure financial resilience, aligning capital flows with sustainable development in emerging markets, and the changing role of traditional financial institutions in the face of rising digital finance.

Speakers
Ahmed Ouhnini
Economist, Policy Center for the New South
Ahmed Ouhnini is an Economist at the Policy Center for the New South. His research area covers agricultural economics, human and social development. Previously, he has worked as a researcher at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and has also a record of working in consulting services in Morocco. Ahmed holds an engineering Diploma in Agriculture and Rural Development from the National School of Agriculture of Meknes and a Master’s Degree in Law, Economics and Management from the Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne Institute of Development. ...
Ferid Belhaj
Senior Fellow
Ferid Belhaj took up the position of World Bank Vice President for Middle East and North Africa on July 1, 2018. Prior to this, he served as the Chief of Staff of the President of the World Bank Group for 15 months. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Belhaj was World Bank Director for the Middle East, in charge of work programs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, based in Beirut, Lebanon. In this capacity, he led the Bank’s engagement on the Syrian refugee crisis and its impact on the region, including the creation of new financing instruments to help countries hosting forcibly displaced people; the ramping up of the Bank drive towards the reconstruction and recovery of Iraq during and after the ISIS invasion and the scaling up of the Bank's commitments to Lebanon and Jordan. Befo ...
Masood Ahmed
President of the Center for Global Development
...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Pierre-Richard Agénor
    January 24, 2015
    L’économie marocaine fait actuellement face au risque de se retrouver « prise en tenaille », entre, d’un côté les pays à faible revenu en croissance rapide, bénéficiant d’une main-d’oeuvre abondante et bon marché, et, de l’autre, les pays à moyen revenu, capables d’innover rapidement. De plus, les investissements massifs de la Chine en Afrique subsaharienne ont contribué à accélérer la participation de certains pays de cette région à la nouvelle division internationale du travail, p ...
  • Authors
    Pierre-Richard Agénor
    January 24, 2015
    The Moroccan economy is currently facing the risk of becoming caught between the rapid-growing low-income countries with abundant and cheap labor, and middle-income countries that are able to innovate quickly. In addition, China’s massive investments in Sub-Saharan Africa have accelerated the participation of some countries in the region in a new international division of labor, especially in low-skill-intensive light manufacturing. In parallel, through the structure of its trade a ...
  • Authors
    January 23, 2015
    The year just ending disappointed economic forecasters, as did the year prior, and the one before that. The aftereffects of the Lehman crisis, now over six years old, and of the subsequent sovereign crisis in Europe, have been systematically underestimated and continue to plague us.  Although the outlook for 2015 is foggier than usual, there are significant areas of strength and many signs that the world economy continues to heal, beginning from here in the United States.  The coll ...
  • Authors
    January 14, 2015
    The International Jobs Report offers an analysis of labor market conditions since the end of the 2008-09 global recession. It also provides forecasts of GDP and employment by the IMF and the International Labor Organization (and by a private-sector company, The Economist Intelligence Unit), to spur discussion and debate. Future editions will update and expand on this analysis, opening a window on to a global labor market that is improving, but not nearly fast enough to help the tens ...
  • Authors
    January 10, 2015
    La chute des prix pétroliers observée depuis le milieu de l’année 2014 s’explique par la conjonction d’un excès d’offre et par une insuffisance de la demande dans un contexte économique mondial morose. Le niveau des prix ne peut cependant être la seule variable à prendre en compte dans une analyse prospective des effets macroéconomiques de cette baisse : structure par terme et volatilité des prix constituent ici des éléments explicatifs fondamentaux. ...
  • December 01, 2014
    This podcast is performed by Andrew Small. This podcast addresses a series of macro-trends the Chinese economy has been experiencing these past years. It also presents China’s relationshi ...