How partnerships with financial institutions can power inclusive development

Multilateralism, the interconnected system underpinning many global development institutions, is undergoing renewal to address multiple, interconnected crises. Climate change, increasing inequality and extreme poverty, to name but a few issues, threaten to undermine global development gains and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable populations.

International financial institutions, such as the World Bank Group (WBG), are evolving to better respond to these compounding global challenges as the need for inclusive and innovative solutions becomes more pressing than ever. These crises are also opportunities for innovation and a systemic rethink of how global development finance is designed, financed, and delivered.

As these discussions continue at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum and beyond, an essential question arises: how can we ensure that the voices and solutions of those most affected are not only heard but are integral to shaping the outcomes?

The World Bank’s 2024 Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. convened stakeholders from governments, the private sector and civil society, signalling a shared recognition that inclusive development requires drawing on a broader network of actors. This gathering underscored the importance of collective action and the need to more systematically integrate the social economy into the core frameworks of development finance.

At present, social economy and civil society initiatives often evolve in parallel to the large-scale financing structures led by governments and multilateral institutions. By forging stronger links and creating avenues for these innovators to connect with mainstream investments, we can foster a more holistic and resilient development model.

With almost 700 million people living in extreme poverty and vulnerable governments burdened by global debt, a renewed development approach is needed, one that effectively recognizes and takes advantage of the role, voices and solutions of development’s main stakeholders – people.

Driving sustainable solutions to tackle global crises will require dynamic renewed partnerships and collective action amongst governments, multilateral organizations, private sector and the social economy – a diverse landscape of citizen-led initiatives that often have potential for scaled impact and accounts for approximately 7% of global GDP.

The social economy and its focus on social and environmental impact, encompasses diverse actors with untapped potential for delivering sustainable, locally tailored and scalable solutions. Unlocking this potential requires multilateral institutions like the World Bank to reimagine their role and develop explicit policy frameworks, tailored financing channels and create opportunities or remove barriers to help integrate social economy innovators into national development strategies.

By embedding their contributions into project design, policy dialogue and country-level financing operations, the World Bank can align governmental reforms, public spending and social economy solutions. Strategic connections between governments, multilateral agencies and community-based organizations is essential for fostering resilient, inclusive and impactful development outcomes.

Across the Global South, civil society and others in the social economy are employing innovative approaches to tackle the pervasive challenges of our time. These solutions are not only working to address urgent community needs, but doing so to promote long-term, sustainable development.

When the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was founded in 1972, for example, millions of women in India were excluded from formal labour markets and lacked basic social protections. Through its innovative grassroots model, SEWA combined the roles of a trade union and a cooperative, organizing women workers to achieve full employment and self-sustainability through access to financial services, social security and capacity-building programmes.

The association pioneered the formation of member-based organizations across informal sectors to enhance women’s agency over the informal economy, bridging a crucial gap between informal workers and formal protection mechanisms. It has reached more than 2.1 million people across 18 states in India and its transformative model has a replicable DNA that could benefit millions more through strategic multilateral partnerships.

Elsewhere, Muso, a non-profit organization based in Mali, has developed an innovative community-based healthcare model to deliver proactive care and prevent deaths from treatable conditions. Muso’s approach takes advantage of networks of community health workers (CHWs) who visit households to provide early care, ensure timely referrals and remove financial barriers to healthcare access. The model integrates door-to-door care with government health systems, working to strengthen local clinics and increase service accessibility.

Muso’s approach has already demonstrated a profound impact, with one trial reportedly dropping child mortality by 63%, achieving the largest, fastest decline in child mortality ever documented in a conflict zone. With nearly half a million people benefiting from the model, Muso’s insights could form the basis for scaling and replicating its approach across broader regions.

SEWA and Muso exemplify “islands of excellence” within the social economy: scalable models that hold the promise of transforming communities worldwide. By empowering women through economic inclusion and delivering community-based healthcare, these organizations showcase the social economy’s capacity to create solutions that address complex global challenges at scale.

To maximize this potential, forging stronger connections with large-scale development finance – including resources and platforms facilitated by the World Bank – can help integrate these high-impact innovations into government systems and national development strategies. As a global connector, the World Bank is uniquely positioned to support and scale such efforts, ensuring that the benefits of these solutions reach far beyond their original contexts.

As we push towards the Sustainable Development Goals against the backdrop of an intensifying climate crisis, forging partnerships with civil society and the social economy is not merely innovative, it is imperative. Our interconnected challenges demand connected solutions. Without strategic pathways between social innovators, global development finance and government policy frameworks, we risk overlooking transformative local approaches that can expedite adaptation, mitigation and inclusive growth.

This is precisely where the World Bank’s evolving vision comes into play. At the 2024 Annual Meetings, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga introduced CIVIC: The Civil Society and Social Innovation Alliance, an initiative dedicated to more systematically integrating civil society and social economy solutions into development finance. By centring people and their on-the-ground development solutions within this architecture, CIVIC can help ensure greater quality, relevance and effectiveness for our collective efforts.

As leaders gather at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum to shape the global economic and environmental agenda, recognizing and embracing this model will be critical. Partnership vehicles, such as the World Bank’s CIVIC, can serve as conduits between the social economy and governments to unlock grassroots potential and create an environment where people-driven solutions inform, guide and strengthen the path toward a more just, resilient and sustainable future.