regional development bank

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a multilateral financial institution focused on financing economic and social development within a specific geographic region, typically offering concessional loans, grants, and technical assistance to lower-income member countries and non-concessional financing to middle-income members; the major regional development banks include the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; regional development banks are typically governed by a combination of regional member countries — who benefit from the institution's lending — and non-regional member countries — including major industrialised countries — who contribute capital and whose participation lowers the institution's borrowing cost; they play important roles in knowledge generation, regional integration, and policy dialogue alongside their financing functions, and are often more responsive to regional priorities than global institutions dominated by a small number of wealthy shareholders