Last week the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank brought together central bankers, finance ministers and academics from around the globe to discuss the challenges of global economic growth and prospects for the future. Amid the slowdown in China and emerging economies and the looming spectre of the U.K.’s departure from the European Union, the IMF has cut global growth forecast from 3.4% to 3.2% for 2016. Issues such as pandemics, climate change and displacement have also come into sharp focus.

However, both institutions are positive over the long term. The IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde declared that the fund is on alert, not on alarm, and believes that the global economy can recover and become more inclusive with the right policies. They urged for structural reforms in emerging markets, insisting that these are very diverse and that investors should be looking at the fundamentals over the medium to long term.

Bill Gates, Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank Group, Justine Greening, UK Secretary of State for International Development and others discussed development finance and its role in fighting poverty and meeting the SDGs. As existing development structures and their financial supports are under increasing pressure and facing strong headwinds in the shape of a challenging global economy, rising inequality and conflict – as well as natural disasters and pandemics – a clear case emerges for an increase in the amount and effectiveness of concessional financing.

In a related event on April 14th, the World Bank and U.S. Department of State presented the Global Connect initiative – an effort to bring 1.5 billion online by 2020. Policy makers, NGOs and experts have developed a roadmap to meet this ambitious target, including:

• Recommendations on the areas and populations upon which to focus initial efforts;
• Technical solutions in every region;
• Addressing regulatory and tax barriers; and
• Successful integration of connectivity into SDGs and country development plans.

The GSMA has contributed to these efforts with a set of recommendations for an enabling policy environment for connectivity investment, including guidelines on spectrum harmonisation and availability, infrastructure sharing and universal service funds.