Mia Mottley (Oct 1, 1965-)， is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to hold either position.
Education: United Nations International School, London School of Economics and Political Science, Queen's College
Mia Mottley renews calls for World Bank and IMF to support poor countries facing poverty and climate threats
Mia Mottley addresses the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, November 2021. The Barbados prime minister is leading calls to reform development finance to better support climate-vulnerable countries (Image: Karwai Tang / COP 26, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Having emerged in recent years as a leading voice in the developing world’s push for climate finance, Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, renewed her calls for reform of the global development finance system ahead of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual spring meetings.
In the lead-up to the week-long gathering in Washington DC, which opened on Monday 10 April, Mottley and Rajiv Shah, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, wrote that international financial institutions have “not yet done enough” to support poor countries that face multiple converging crises, including climate disasters, poverty and increasing hunger. “When humanity is facing some of the gravest crises in history, an inadequate response has left countries and people feeling increasingly alone,” they said.
90%
The average debt-to-GDP ratio of Caribbean nations. Though not a simple metric of an economy’s health, a ratio above 77% can hinder economic growth, according to the World Bank.
The meeting’s agendas, they added, “offer little reason for optimism” to believe help will come for lower-income countries that are swamped by debt and unable to deal with the climate crisis. Among them are many in Mottley’s own region, the Caribbean, where island nations are highly vulnerable to extreme weather, while debt levels average 90% of GDP.
Mottley took office in 2018 with more than 70% of the vote, becoming the first woman to hold the position since Barbados gained independence from Britain in 1966. Long active in the country’s politics, she has campaigned against pollution, climate change and deforestation, and turned Barbados into “a frontrunner in the global environmental movement”, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
The Barbadian leader has garnered increasing international attention since she delivered a lauded speech at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November 2022. At the opening ceremony, she called on developed countries to unlock funding for climate-vulnerable countries. “There is no way that developing countries can fight this battle without access to concessional funding,” she said.
At the conference, Mottley also launched the Bridgetown Initiative, an international coalition made of private, public and philanthropic leaders seeking to reform the global financial architecture. She had first proposed the idea at the 2021 UN climate summit, COP26 in Glasgow, and in July 2022 hosted a meeting to further develop its proposals in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados that lends the initiative its name.
There is no way developing countries can fight this battle without access to concessional funding
Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados
The core message of the Bridgetown Initiative is that lower-income countries need new ways to relieve debt and, in turn, invest in climate resilience and mitigation. The group wants the World Bank, IMF and other multilateral financial institutions to take the lead in raising over US$1 trillion a year to support developing countries’ sustainable development and climate goals, as well as making up for loss and damage caused by extreme weather events.
The World Bank–IMF spring meetings bring together central bankers, ministers, private sector executives, civil society representatives and academics. Barbados has not sent a representative to the Washington event, choosing to focus instead on building a strategy for its global coalition that will push for financial reforms.
French president Emmanuel Macron has already backed the Bridgetown Initiative, which was at the centre of the talks during Mottley’s visit to Paris in March. Their next meeting may come in June at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, convened by Macron and which will seek to build on the initiative’s calls for reform.
Elsewhere, John Kerry, the United States’ special presidential envoy for climate, has also expressed openness to Mottley’s ideas for multilateral finance reform. The Barbados prime minister has even attracted support from the financial institutions’ leaders, including Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF.
At an opening of the spring meetings on Monday, Georgieva commented that the crises the world faces “have pushed the burden back” onto poor people, and made calls for “structural reforms to uplift productivity” and offer prospects for countries’ growth. In discussion with Georgieva was David Malpass, the president of the World Bank Group, who added that “there is an urgency for policy changes” amid mounting debt crises and climate extremes. He was not explicit, however, on whether these changes included reforms to the financial system.
But questions on whether the World Bank will change its lending model or how it will address poverty and global warming may take longer to be answered, particularly during a transition period at the top. In the coming weeks, Malpass – who has faced fierce criticism and pressure over the bank’s commitment to climate action and his personal stance on climate change – is expected to hand over to Ajay Banga, previously chief executive at Mastercard and a chair of the International Chamber of Commerce.
Barbados PM fights for shake-up of global climate finance
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says rich nations must help developing countries pay for impacts of climate change
World leaders meeting in Paris on Thursday could give poorer countries access to hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle climate change.
Mia Mottley, Barbados' first female PM, is leading the global fight for this money and tells BBC News that her tiny country urgently needs help.
Poorer nations want more money because they did little to cause climate change but face its worst effects.
They also struggle to afford expensive projects like renewable energy.
Climate finance, including funding for flood defences or solar plants, has long been one of the biggest sticking points in climate negotiations.
But Ms Mottley has built a global coalition to support her demand that the international financial system be fundamentally reformed.
"We are all in this together", Ms Mottley told BBC News in Paris. "If we don't realise that, we will not act with the urgency that's necessary to save the planet and save lives."
The Barbadian prime minister is joint host of the Paris conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France.
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Island nations like the Maldives want help to build defences against flooding linked to climate change
Dozens of world leaders are attending the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, including the German Chancellor, the president of Brazil and the new president of the World Bank as well as the prime minister of China and the US Treasury Secretary.
The UK is sending its minister for development, Andrew Mitchell.
Ms Mottley is determined the meeting deliver results.
She describes the threat of climate change as "a death sentence" on the world. "If it is a death sentence, then we need to move with urgency," she explains.
Insiders at the summit are expecting an announcement that a target for $100bn worth of a kind of international currency called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) has been met.
These assets will be transferred to low-income countries to be used for climate programmes.
But Ms Mottley has an even bigger prize in her sights, a plan dubbed the "Bridgetown Agenda" after the Barbadian capital.
It wants to generate more finance for the countries that need it most through a wholesale modernisation of the international monetary system.
The current institutions - including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - were set up by the victorious nations towards the end of the Second World War at a conference in a ski resort called Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, US
The so-called "Bretton Woods system" will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year.
Ms Mottley says she wants to make it fit for the challenges of the modern world by moving the focus away from richer nations and towards delivering outcomes that benefit the entire world, like helping developing countries tackle climate change.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption,
Many countries are facing extreme drought as global temperature rises
"The reason why these institutions exist is that they were created to help the world in the reconstruction effort after World War Two. We are in a moment that is equal to World War Two with respect to climate," she said.
This week the International Energy Agency warned annual investments in clean energy in developing nations will need to triple from $770bn in 2022 to as much as $2.8tn by the early 2030s if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
One proposal is that institutions like the World Bank offer cheaper loans for climate action projects.
It is much more expensive to build flood defences in Barbados or Angola than it is in the Netherlands or the UK, Ms Mottley points out.
The same goes for erecting wind turbines or installing solar farms.
That is because low-income countries are charged high interest rates - often two or even three times the rates developed nations face.
Yet the risks of individual projects don't vary anywhere near as much as that.
Another suggestion is that institutions like the World Bank should agree to guarantee loans for climate action in developing nations. That would encourage the private sector to lend at lower interest rates.
Experts say these initiatives could generate hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of loans for climate projects in low-income countries.
Another proposal involves the creation of an auction in which developing nations would bid for cheap finance for climate projects.
This "Climate Mitigation Trust Fund" would be funded by tens of billions of dollars' worth of SDRs and overseen by the IMF and the UN.
The winners would be the projects that reduce global warming fastest.
It is not expected that a final decision will be made on these proposals, but Ms Mottley is confident that progress will be made.
We tell our children we shouldn't put off to tomorrow what we need to do today, Ms Mottley says.
"I find myself actually repeating a lot of things that we would say to children, in order to inform global behaviour today," she continues. "That tells us a lot."
Global Financial Architecture Has Failed Mission to Provide Developing Countries with Safety Net, Secretary-General Tells Summit, Calling for Urgent Reforms
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 22 June 2023
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, in Paris today:
Dear Emmanuel Macron, thank you for organizing this important Summit, amidst an international context fraught with challenges. And thank you, dear Mia Mottley, for the efforts undertaken within the framework of the Bridgetown Initiative. This provides a remarkable foundation to address the difficulties faced by numerous developing countries. Because doing nothing is not an option.
The international financial system is in crisis. Halfway to the 2030 deadline, the Sustainable Development Goals are drifting further away by the day. Even the most fundamental goals on hunger and poverty have gone into reverse after decades of progress.
Yes, in 2023, more than 750 million people do not have enough to eat. And tens of millions more are teetering on the verge of extreme poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated the situation.
While wealthy countries could print money to revive their economies, developing countries could not do likewise and are grappling with exorbitant borrowing costs — up to eight times higher than those of developed countries.
Many leaders face an agonizing choice: servicing their debt or meeting the needs of their populations. Many African countries now spend more on debt repayments than on health care. With terrible consequences for entire generations.
Today, 52 countries are in default or dangerously close to it. This includes the majority of least developed countries, as well as the majority of the 50 countries most vulnerable to climate change. Dozens of other nations are at risk of joining them.
This situation is untenable. It is clear that the international financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries.
The reason is simple, like Mia Mottley just told us, this architecture was built in the aftermath of World War II. It essentially reflects, even with some changes, the political and economic power dynamics of that time.
Consider this: over three quarters of today's countries were not present at the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And the situation is no better for the United Nations and the Security Council, particularly.
Nearly 80 years later, the global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and unjust. It is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the twenty-first century world: a multipolar world characterized by deeply integrated economies and financial markets, but also marked by geopolitical tensions and growing systemic risks.
International financial institutions are now too small and limited to fulfil their mandate and serve everyone, especially the most vulnerable countries. For example, the World Bank's paid-in capital as a percentage of global gross domestic product (GDP) is now less than a fifth of what it was in 1960 — even though the challenges are far greater.
Even worse, the global financial system perpetuates and even exacerbates inequalities. In 2021, and we applaud this decision, the International Monetary Fund allocated over $650 billion in special drawing rights. European Union countries, including my own, received $160 billion. African countries: $34 billion.
In other words, European citizens received on average nearly 13 times more than African citizens. This was all done by the rules. But, let us acknowledge: these rules have become profoundly immoral. A financial architecture which does not represent today’s world is at risk of leading to its own fragmentation in a world where geopolitics is in itself a factor for fragmentation.
There will be no serious solution to this crisis without serious reforms. I have called for a new Bretton Woods moment — a moment for Governments to come together, re-examine and re-configure the global financial architecture for the twenty-first century.
And earlier this month, as part of our preparations for the Summit of the Future, I put forward a Policy Brief — a detailed blueprint for a redesigned global financial architecture capable of serving as a safety net for all countries.
I have no illusions. This is a question of power and political will, and change will not happen overnight. But, as we work for the deep reforms that are needed, we can take urgent action today to meet the urgent needs of developing and emerging economies.
That is why I have proposed an SDG [Sustainable Development Goals] Stimulus of $500 billion per year for investments in sustainable development and climate action. It includes concrete steps global leaders can take right now.
They can establish a really effective and time effective debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower rates, including for middle income countries with particular vulnerabilities, namely in relation to climate.
They can scale up development and climate finance by increasing the capital base and changing the business model of multilateral development banks and allowing in a much stronger coordination to transform their approach to risk, without risking the AAA [rating] and a lot could be said about the role played by [ratings] agencies that are, in my opinion, deeply biased and have contributed to many of the crises we have faced, and, simultaneously, transforming their approach to risk to massively leverage private finance at affordable cost to developing countries.
And lot has been said today about the need for more guarantees. World leaders can expand contingency financing to countries in need, by rechannelling, in broader scale, unused special drawing rights, and by using other innovative mechanisms to increase global liquidity.
The African Development Bank initiative to re-channel [special drawing rights] to multilateral development banks could multiply their impact by five. This example should be expanded. Global leaders can put in place a mechanism to issue [special drawing rights] automatically in times of crisis and distribute them according to need. They can put a price on carbon and end fossil-fuel subsidies and repurpose them towards more sustainable and productive uses.
And the list of things we can do now goes on and on. The two next days will be useful to take things forward. Taken together, these steps would help to beat poverty and hunger, uplift developing and emerging economies and support investments in health, education and climate action.
We don’t have to wait for root and branch reform of the international financial architecture. We can take steps right now and take a giant leap towards global justice.
I am fully aware of the challenges and headwinds we face. Power dynamics and constraints on global cooperation in today’s world make problems more difficult to solve. But, solutions are not impossible. And we can start now. Your discussions can yield meaningful results for people in need. I urge you to make this meeting not just a cri du cœur for change, but a cri de guerre — a rallying cry for urgent action. We are at a moment of truth and reckoning. Together, we can make it a moment of hope. Thank you.
IMF Managing Director Remarks at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact
Thank you, President Macron, for hosting this Summit and for bringing such incredible energy to these important issues of debt, climate, and financing for development.
And thank you for bringing the new World Bank President, Ajay Banga, and me on stage together for the first time in our new roles.
For full disclosure, we have been on stage together before, discussing women’s empowerment and financial inclusion. I have no doubt that we will be great partners in the next chapter of our institutions’ work together.
A rapidly changing and unbalanced world
Let me start by saying that the IMF and the World Bank were created in 1944 and since then the world has changed dramatically. At that time, there were 99 countries.
Now there is more than double that number – the IMF has 190 members – so on that basis alone the Bretton Woods institutions are dramatically different to when they were created.
At the same time, the global population more than tripled, and the world economy – as measured by GDP -- increased more than 10 times. The simple math means that the average income per capita has more than tripled.
So, we have a richer world. But it is a world with huge imbalances.
First, we have youth in some places and capital in different places. Unless we build a bridge for capital to flow where young people are [to create jobs and prosperity], not only would we undermine prospects for growth, but we would also undermine global stability.
Two, climate. The sources of emissions – historically and now – are primarily in advanced economies and large emerging market economies. But where is most of the impact? Tragically, in countries that have done nothing to create the problem. We must build a bridge to help address this imbalance.
Three, financial capacity to cope with a fast-changing, more shock prone world. Financial resources are much larger in some places than in others.
And so – our institutions have a huge responsibility to do what is necessary for the world today and the world tomorrow.
Adapting institutions
For the Fund and for the Bank, this translates into the imperative of a change in mindset. We must recognize that – at their core – our mandates are the same but how we implement these mandates should change dramatically.
For the IMF, we have a clear mission: macroeconomic and financial stability, growth, and employment.
But to implement this mission in the world I described – with the imbalances we face – requires us to take a much more comprehensive view. What does that mean in practice?
It means a more comprehensive view of the resilience of people – to ensure they are educated, healthy and have good social protection.
It means a more comprehensive view of the resilience of society – not just in the banking sector – because when society is unfair and unjust the economy cannot deliver the best fruit for all people.
And of course, a more comprehensive view when it comes to the resilience of our planet.
And when we take that more holistic, more comprehensive approach to our mandate – that requires us to examine how we work, what our priorities are, and what instruments we deploy.
Well-resourced reinvigorated multilateralism
Clearly a top priority for both the Bank and the Fund is to mobilize more concessional and grant financing because of the imbalances I have described.
Start with the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT). We have almost reached the resources we need to meet demand.
Yet, demand is higher, interest rates are higher –so we need more subsidy resources to make up the difference between the market rates received by lenders and the below market rates we are committed to offer to our most vulnerable borrowers. This subsidy gap stands at US$1.2 billion.
My appeal at this Summit is to close this gap.
President Banga and I will go to Morocco for the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in October. This will be the first time in half a century that the meetings will take place on the African continent.
We will go there to deliver for Africa and that means having a strong International Development Association (IDA) and a strong PRGT.
We have also promised to help re-channel Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). So if countries in strong reserve positions that receive SDRs don't need them, they should lend their SDRs to others – through the Fund or through multilateral development banks.
The target for such rechanneling was set at US$100 billion. And I can announce today that we reached that target.
Now, we must lift our ambition.
On SDR channeling, we started with a request for countries to channel 20 percent of their 2021 allocation. Then we went to 30 percent. And now we are moving to an ask of 40 percent.
Today we have close to US$60 billion in pledges to be channeled through the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) and through the PRGT.
And - for the Resilience and Sustainability Trust, I'm very proud to announce that we have raised more than US$40 billion – close to our original target. Today, I'm using this meeting to ask that we lift our ambition by an additional US$20 billion -- because we now have proof of concept.
We already have seven countries benefiting and hope for another 10 countries to benefit next year.
For sure, demand for the RST has been very strong. Why? For the first time in our history, we are offering long-term financing – with a 20-year repayment period and a 10-year grace period. And we are providing financing to vulnerable middle-income countries on concessional terms.
In implementing the RST, we are working closely with the World Bank. It is the analytics of the World Bank, such as the Country Climate and Development Reports, that underpin two thirds of our RST programs.
And today we will announce how the RST is working with other institutions, such as the European Investment Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank – showing that we deliver on what we pledged to do: we are acting together.
I want to conclude with the following.
We know that average income per capita has increased by several multiples over the past decades.
But, as my professor of statistics used to say: if you put your head in the refrigerator, and your feet in the oven, your temperature would be average – but you would be dead.
Why do I say this? If we don't restart the engine of income convergence, then – for people lower down the income spectrum whose income is lagging – the fact that the average global income is increasing would not make any difference to their lives.
Our institutions are committed to ensure this is not the fate of the world.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says rich nations must help developing countries pay for impacts of climate change
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption,
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption,
Kristalina Georgieva
