Lenders vow to cooperate over global development

Washington, April 20 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of six global financial institutions announced that inter-agency data sharing and collaboration would be strengthened to better guide development programmes, reported Xinhua Saturday.

The initiative, announced Friday, will provide the global community with better statistical tools to measure progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and post-2015 development agenda and improve the life of people in the developing world, the World Bank Group (WBG) said in a statement.

"This historic meeting of resourceful institutions confirmed my belief that by working together we can demonstrate the power of multilateralism to secure a better future for all. The first-of-its-kind meeting and agreement will help us further deepen our joint work to meet the MDGs and develop a post-2015 agenda for a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future," said Ban.

Leaders of the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations, and WBG on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in strengthening statistical capacity in member countries and to facilitate the sharing of data, tools, standards and analysis to improve statistics for monitoring development outcomes.

"We need better information and we need it more frequently. This is the only way for us to know whether we are making progress toward our goals of improving the lives of the poor," said Jim Yong Kim, president of the WBG.