PMC convenes MDBs and DFIs on sidelines of World Bank Spring Meetings

15 April, 2026. The EMDE Public Markets Coalition (PMC) brought together multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs), just days after a new report by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) urged global cooperation to reverse negative trends in development finance.

The PMC Roundtable, co-hosted by the Milken Institute, took place on the sidelines of the World Bank Spring Meetings and focused on strategies to advance public capital markets as a central tool for development finance and a driver for both local and global private capital mobilisation, with sessions focusing on securitisation and local (public) capital markets in Africa.

The Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026: Implementing the Sevilla Commitment (FSDR 2026) assesses progress on the Sevilla Commitment — the blueprint for action agreed at the historic Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in 2025. It warned that “development finance trends are moving in the wrong direction” with private capital mobilisation remaining below expectations. “Longstanding challenges hinder private capital from being mobilised at the scale required to meet SDG investment needs, especially in the places that need it the most,” it said.

The PMC was launched at FFD4 by the United Kingdom, with co-implementing partners, Norway and the African Development Bank, and with the support of the Philippines and other endorsing partners. This week's roundtable marks the PMC’s first gathering at an international forum since FFD4, building on its launch objective to put public capital markets at the core of the development finance conversation to mobilise investment to emerging markets and developing economies.

Public markets hold assets equivalent to nearly 200 times those on MDB balance sheets and 20 times the value of private market investments globally, presenting a unique opportunity for capital mobilisation at the scale needed to address the SDG financing gap. But while these markets are central to the development finance system's ability to raise market capital for DFI operations, this expertise has not been harnessed to broaden the universe of private capital investing directly in developing countries.

The PMC was created to help change this by supporting the development finance sector to develop institutionalised strategies for capital mobilisation through public markets. This week’s event is the PMC’s largest convening to date in a series of workshops through which it will develop a practical Toolkit for MDBs and DFIs to integrate public markets into their investment and capital recycling strategies.

Discussions focused on how MDBs can use securitisation as a tool to increase their capital velocity and move to an originate-to-distribute model, followed by a session on the role that development finance actors can play in local capital market development in Africa. The UN-DESA report identified securitisation as one of the most promising innovations for mobilising private capital, while also pointing to underdeveloped domestic capital markets as a root cause of underinvestment in emerging markets and developing economies.

Cameron Khosrowshahi, Chairperson of the Public Markets Coalition, said:

“Public capital markets are the world’s largest reservoir of investment capital. UN-DESA’s work highlighted that the tools exist, the investor appetite is there, and the case for action is urgent. Today’s roundtable is the first step in building the practical guidance that will help MDBs and DFIs turn that opportunity into reality.”