20 April 2018: Seven multilateral development banks (MDBs) launched a platform to enhance their collaboration on economic migration and forced displacement. With an estimated 250 million international economic migrants worldwide and 66 million people forcibly displaced as refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs), the platform represents a response to a request made by the G7.

The platform was launched on 20 April 2018, on the margins of the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings.

The MDBs presented a strategic framework for action at the G7 meeting in Bari, Italy, in May 2017, and announced the platform in October 2017. Since then, MDB representatives have met several times and identified four priority areas where there is high potential to increase impact. In its initial phase, the platform will focus on:

1. Refining the common framework for MDB engagement;
2. Advancing cooperation on knowledge, evidence, and data;
3. Ensuring strategic coordination on priority topics in coordination with governments, the UN and other partners; and
4. Deploying better-targeted instruments and products.

The participant MDBs are the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), WBG, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

The 2018 Spring Meetings took place in Washington, DC, US, from 16-22 April. [World Bank Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on Spring Meetings]