NOTE: This event took place December 9, 2011. The 81-minute WMV video linked above is an archive of the live streamed event. Clicking the image will launch your Windows Media Player application.

Media coverage of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Cannes on November 3-4, 2011 was dominated by financial and fiscal turmoil in the Euro zone. This overshadowed an otherwise broad and ambitious policy agenda set out by France at the start of its G20 Presidency and on which important progress was made throughout the year. Many of the issues that were addressed are central to the World Bank's mandate, including food security, infrastructure development, financial deepening in developing countries and climate change financing. Other issues are of critical importance to the Bank's clients, including efforts to reform the international monetary system and promote strong, sustainable and balanced global growth. 

Thomas A. Bernes (Executive Director for the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and former IMF Executive Director) and Homi Kharas (Senior Fellow and Deputy Director for the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings) shared their insights on the outcome of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Cannes, gave their assessments of the importance of the 2012 French Presidency of the G20 for the Bank’s mandate and its clients, and discussed prospects for the G20 going forward. The session was chaired by Jeffrey D. Lewis, Director for PRMED and World Bank representative to the G20 Development Working Group.