Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Group, Regional Vice President
Panel 2: Regional Collaboration as a Catalyst for Scalable Solutions
many new tools offered by her institution: “Blended finance, risk-sharing, first-loss guarantees and other products are examples of how we are aiming to mobilize the private sector.” Addressing changes in the global financial architecture she said of the IFC: “We are moving from generating deals to distributing deals by crowding in others.” When it comes to strengthening resilience Shukhrat Vafaev, Director General at the Agency for Strategic Reforms under the President of Uzbekistan, made the case for starting with small steps: “How will I be able to reach the United States, if I cannot enter the markets of my neighbor countries?” He added that although Central Asia traditionally looks to Moscow, it is now feeling the growing influence of Beijing: “Diversification is key,” Vafaev stressed. The second panel on “Regional Collaboration as a Catalyst for Scalable
Columbia Business School in New York, warned: “I remember where we stood in 2009, when we gathered for the COP15 Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. Then we coined the slogan: ‘From millions to billions’. Now that we are approaching COP28 what we need is ‘From billions to trillions.’” This, he said, shows that “the price for inaction is enormous”. And – as the conference agreed – it is a price always paid by those who have the least. The panel discussions covered the subjects of transformative development finance, regional cooperation, food insecurity, climate solutions and partnerships for people and the planet. OPEC Fund Senior Director, Strategic Planning & Economic Services Department, Al Shaimaa Al-Sheiby
Shukhrat Vafaev, Agency for Strategic Reforms, Uzbekistan
Solutions” heard Ferid Belhaj, Vice President for North Africa and the Middle East at the World Bank Group, raise the alarm when it comes to the Sustainable Development Goals: “We are putting a lot of money on the table, yet we are nowhere near what is needed.” In the Fiscal Year 2022 (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022) the World Bank deployed a record US$114.9 billion in new commitments, roughly the GDP of the Slovak Republic, a member of the European Union. However, in a later panel on financing climate solutions, Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at
Nawal Al-Hosany, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to IRENA, and Veronica Scotti, Swiss Re, Chairperson Public Sector Solutions
Gernot Wagner, Columbia Business School, climate economist
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