Ajay Banga, the President of the World Bank, has encouraged member countries to make record donations in the next funding round for its arm, the International Development Association (IDA), which assists over 75 of the world’s poorest countries.
President Banga made this statement on December 6, 2023, during the IDA donor and borrower representatives’ conference in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He warned that the IDA was being pushed to its limits by increasing demands due to the deteriorating fight against poverty.
The Zanzibar conference is aimed at adding to the 20th IDA funding round, which is due to be completed on June 30, 2025; however, Banga used it to launch his campaign for the subsequent round of funding to exceed $US93 billion.
“I call upon World Bank shareholders, donor countries, and philanthropies to dig deeper and help IDA deliver better development outcomes to low-income countries during the opening of a mid-term review of the IDA 20th replenishment,” Banga said.
His appeal for more concessional resources, which have been drained by a poor recovery from COVID-19 and negative spillovers from Russia’s war in Ukraine, comes days after Banga emphasized the World Bank’s ambitious ambitions to boost climate finance at the COP28 summit in Dubai.
Banga also stated that the bank must grow faster, more efficiently, and ultimately larger in order to fund some of the billions of dollars in global development needs while being relevant in the next few decades.
He further said that the World Bank should reconsider how it measures its performance in order to focus on improved results rather than the quantity of projects or cash disbursed.
’’Changes at the world’s largest anti-poverty lender will boost its lending capacity by about $150 billion over the next decade,’’ Banga noted.
IDA, which started in 1960, is the largest source of donor funds for basic social services in the poorest countries, as well as providing no- to low-interest loans and grants to needy countries.
Donors meet every three years to replenish IDA’s resources and evaluate its structure, and in December 2021, IDA approved a record $93 billion for the lending arm through fiscal 2025, so the current twentieth IDA funding round is scheduled to finish on June 30, 2025.
