The Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) is an International Monetary Fund lending vehicle approved by the IMF Executive Board in April 2022 and operational from October 2022. It was created to channel the lending capacity of unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from wealthier members to countries facing longer-term structural challenges—particularly climate change and pandemic preparedness—that threaten balance-of-payments stability.
The RST disburses loans through the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), which offers concessional financing with a 20-year maturity and a 10½-year grace period—substantially longer than standard IMF instruments. To qualify, a country must:
- Be eligible (low-income countries, all small developing states, and middle-income countries below an IMF-set per-capita GNI threshold—roughly three-quarters of IMF members);
- Have a concurrent IMF-supported program (such as a Stand-By Arrangement, Extended Fund Facility, or Policy Coordination Instrument); and
- Commit to a package of reform measures targeting climate or health resilience.
Access is capped at the lower of 150% of quota or SDR 1 billion per country.
The RST is funded primarily by voluntary channeling of SDRs from members with strong external positions. By 2024 the trust had secured total pledges in excess of SDR 30 billion (about US$40 billion equivalent), with contributors including Japan, China, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The United States announced a pledge but congressional authorization has remained pending.
Early RSF arrangements were approved for Costa Rica, Barbados, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Kosovo in late 2022 and 2023, typically focused on green budgeting, carbon pricing, disaster risk management, and adaptation finance.
Critics—including some civil-society groups and academics—argue the RST's program-conditionality requirement excludes countries that have no need for traditional IMF financing, that access caps are too modest relative to climate investment gaps, and that climate reforms should not be conditioned on macroeconomic adjustment programs. Supporters counter that the RST is the first multilateral instrument explicitly recycling SDRs for climate purposes.
Example
In December 2022, Costa Rica became the first country to receive financing under the IMF's RST, with a roughly US$710 million arrangement supporting decarbonization and green fiscal reforms.
Frequently asked questions
Unlike standard IMF facilities aimed at short-term balance-of-payments crises, the RST offers 20-year loans with a 10½-year grace period to address long-term structural risks like climate change and pandemics.
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