Major global threats—including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and rising inequality—call for large-scale concerted action. The challenge facing policymakers today is to support big structural transformations that can make economies simultaneously more productive, more inclusive, and less carbon-intensive. Public development banks (PDBs)—at the local, national, subregional, regional, or interregional level—are key to helping governments finance a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, and to ensure that economies serve people and the planet far better in the long run.