MDB COVID-19 Crisis Response: Where Did the Money Go?

In a CGD note earlier this year, we compared the scale of the multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) response in 2020 to the COVID-19 crisis to their response to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), finding that, though commitments did increase substantially in 2020, their growth lagged well behind the expansion following the GFC. The smaller 2020 response contrasted with the relative scale of economic damage in the two periods. Developing economies suffered a 3.5 percent contraction in GDP in 2020, compared to slower but still positive 1 percent growth in 2009. This note expands on that analysis, updating the data to include the African Development Bank (AfDB) and disaggregating 2020 sovereign and non-sovereign commitments by sector and by country income group.