The Build Back Better World (B3W) partnership was launched at the June 2021 G7 Leaders’ Summit, hosted by the UK at Carbis Bay in Cornwall. Under the leadership of US president Joe Biden, B3W reaffirmed the need to meet the estimated $15 trillion required to bridge the long-standing global infrastructure gap by 2040. The initiative was to be based on core principles concerning transparency, sustainability, partnerships and mobilizing private capital.
B3W was proposed as the G7’s strategic response to global challenges, in particular the global infrastructure gap; the COVID-19 recovery; and the perceived need to counter China’s economic and political influence in the developing world.
The global context for the announcement of B3W was, and is still, turbulent. The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread economic, social and political upheaval, with unequal impacts both globally and within the G7. Access to recovery stimulus – including vaccines and financial assistance – has been highly unequal. The need to address climate change has also become a major priority among G7 countries. Large challenges such as these call for global leadership and collective action.
B3W was proposed as the G7’s strategic response to global challenges, in particular the global infrastructure gap; the COVID-19 recovery; and the perceived need to counter China’s economic and political influence in the developing world.
Instead, these dual global crises have been met with both inadequate international leadership – amid a pervasive nationalism marked by examples such as hoarding of vaccines and essential equipment by richer countries during the COVID-19 pandemic – and lacklustre action towards meeting a $100 billion commitment by developed countries to finance climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in developing economies. The accumulation of such failings has heightened awareness of global inequities and led to a fracturing of trust between governments and people.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 complicates global conditions further, underscoring the urgent need for coordination in addressing economic and social crises. Measures adopted in response to the war on Ukraine have inflicted considerable costs on Russia but have caused troubling disruption to global energy and food supplies, with multiple adverse effects especially for inflation, debt and food insecurity for the most vulnerable.
B3W also intends to compete with China’s expanding global infrastructure development activities and rising influence in international affairs. Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), established in 2013, China has created an alternative model of development across Africa, Asia and Latin America – one focused on investments and lending in critically needed infrastructure. Despite the previous reluctance of most Western donors and multilateral development banks (MDBs) to fund infrastructure development on the same scale as China, the latter’s efforts have raised concern among Western actors.
In this turbulent global context, this paper maps G7 development and investment initiatives under B3W, and explores both their progress to date and their broader implications for cooperation between G7 countries, recipient countries and the private sector. One year on from the B3W announcement, the paper measures action and progress against promises and pledges. It also looks ahead to what such initiatives mean for development, the global recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and G7 geopolitical priorities.
