A/Prof. Susan Engel1
1University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
Biography:
Susan has written extensively on the theory and practices of development and development finance institutions. She is a co-editor of the 2022 Routledge Handbook of Global Development and co-author of The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development? (with AR Bazbauers, 2021).
Abstract:
Development finance is growing in popularity to meet both domestic and international agendas. Domestically it fits with the resurgence of what some scholars are calling a state capitalist agenda and, internationally, states are substituting development finance for grant finance to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and climate finance agendas. Thus, understanding the strengths and limitations of different development finance mechanisms and challenges remains important. The panel sheds light on global and regional power relations and priorities in development. It explores a range of specific challenges in development finance including the asymmetrical political power relations in China’s infrastructure lending, China’s discursive reconstruction of its infrastructure financing norms, the possibilities of recourse for negative environmental consequences from development banks and whether gender mainstreaming plays out differently in multilateral development banks versus public banks in India.