July 22, 2025
Washington, D.C.
Development in the Age of Populism
Date & Time:
July 22 - 25, 2025 ET
Location:
Days 1&2: Preston Auditorium, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Days 3&4: Birdsall House Conference Center, Center for Global Development, Washington, D.C.
In-Person: Please sign up here
Online: Please register here
Event Contact:
World Bank
CGD
In Memory of Stanley Fischer (1943-2025)
ABCDE 2025 is dedicated to the memory of Stanley Fischer (1943-2025), who established this influential forum in 1989. His vision and leadership have left a lasting legacy, inspiring generations of development economists worldwide. We honor Fischer's contributions and continue to build upon the foundation he laid for collaborative and innovative economic research. As Fischer emphasized, "the ultimate objective of the series is, by enhancing the knowledge base, to improve both member country and Bank policymaking."
The World Bank Group’s Annual Conference on Development Economics—ABCDE—is a 36-year-old forum to stimulate an exchange of ideas between leaders in global policy discussions and researchers, policymakers, and development practitioners from the Bank’s member countries. Established in 1989 and organized by the World Bank’s Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC), ABCDE became the premier venue for cutting-edge insights on how to tackle the most pressing challenges of development. Several younger researchers presenting papers went on to become Nobel Prize winners. The conference also played a role in shaping the global consensus on development policy.
Beginning in 2024, ABCDE is co-sponsored by partnership that rotates every two years. For the 2025 conference, the Center for Global Development and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy are the World Bank Group’s partners.
By most measures of human progress, the world is in better shape today than it has ever been—in life expectancy, in per capita GDP, in literacy rates, among other things. Yet, profound dissatisfaction has taken root in many countries, at every level of income. The global economic system that has powered much of this progress over the last 80 years is now widely regarded as broken. Nearly two-thirds of the global electorate went to the polls last year to register their displeasure regarding income inequality, cultural insecurity, and elite institutions.
Populism, in short, is ascendant to an unusually synchronized degree, fueled by a fragmenting public consensus on the policies needed for economic progress. It will pose a formidable development challenge in the coming years.
ABCDE—scheduled for July 22 - 25, 2025 and organized by the World Bank in conjunction with the Center for Global Development and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy—aims to assess the developments during the last decade, analyze the causes, and adjust our approach to economic progress.
Bringing together some of the world’s leading economic thinkers, the conference will help identify the best way forward—with deep dives on key topics such as artificial intelligence, migration, nutrition and health, and pollution, and a geographical focus that spans the world. Attendees will explore geopolitical shifts; unilateralism and multilateralism; and growth and opportunity.
Download the Conference Agenda here. All times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Dr Mohamed El-Erian is President of Queens’ College Cambridge, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, and Chair of the Gramercy Funds. He is an advisor to the GIC Investment Strategies Committee. He chairs the Board of Under Armour and serves on the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO from 2007 to 2014, and former chair of President Obama’s Global Development Council from 2012 to 2017. He was President and CEO of Harvard Management Company, Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup, and Deputy Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. Dr El-Erian writes regularly and is a Financial Times Contributing Editor and Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has two New York Times’ best sellers (the 2008 ‘When Markets Collide’ and the 2016 ‘The Only Game in Town’) and A Times’ Top Ten (the 2023 “Premacrisis”). He was named four years in a row to the Foreign Policy list of Top Global Thinkers. Dr El-Erian holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degree in Economics from Cambridge University, as well as a Masters and Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University. Read More
Opening Remarks: The End of Development Cooperation?
Masood Ahmed is the president emeritus of the Center for Global Development (CGD). He joined the Center in January 2017, capping a 35-year career driving economic development policy initiatives relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects at major international institutions including the IMF, World Bank, and DFID. He joined CGD from the IMF, where he served for eight years as director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, earning praise from Managing Director Christine Lagarde as a “visionary leader.” In that role, he oversaw the Fund's operations in 32 countries, and managed relationships with key national and regional policy makers and stakeholders. In previous years, he also served as the IMF's director of External Relations, and deputy director of the Policy Development and Review Department. Read More
Stanley Fischer Memorial Lecture Speaker
Robert B. Zoellick served as the 11th President of the World Bank Group (2007–2012), U.S. Trade Representative (2001–2005), and Deputy Secretary of State (2005–2006), with earlier roles in the Treasury, State Department, and White House. He is the non-executive chairman of AllianceBernstein and a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center. He serves on the boards of Temasek, Laureate International Universities, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and is active in global initiatives such as Mercy Corps and the Global Tiger Initiative. He has received numerous national and international honors for his contributions to diplomacy, trade, and development. Zoellick holds degrees from Swarthmore College and Harvard University, including a J.D. magna cum laude. Read more.
See all speakers here.
