Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK calls for fundamental reset of global financial system for developing countries, published on 14 October 2026, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the value for money of contributing to multilateral development banks and other foreign aid channels in delivering the proposed reforms.

The Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are leading development actors and a central part of the UK's international development toolkit, allowing us to achieve a level of scale and impact that is not possible through our bilateral programmes alone. The MDBs' financial model allows them to leverage shareholder capital, borrowing at low rates from international capital markets using their strong credit ratings and on-lending many multiples of the initial capital to countries at favourable rates. This offers strong value for money for the UK taxpayer. For example, in the case of the lending arm of the World Bank, £1 in capital from a shareholder such as the UK can enable up to £10 of additional lending to middle income countries over ten years.