Donor countries have pledged $52 billion for 2014-2016 borrowing to the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for poor countries, the Washington, D.C.-based institution announced on Tuesday.
The amount available for IDA loans over the next three years will play an important role in enabling the bank to carry out its goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030, which President Jim Kim articulated earlier this year.
The latest fundraising round also involved policy discussion for how that money will be spent.
While the final policy hasn’t been released, donor country representatives have been negotiating plans for different funding scenarios. The increase in funding will likely allow the bank to increase funding for fragile and conflict-affected states, as well as to provide cheaper loans to India, set to graduate from IDA over the next three years.
The World Bank was bracing for a real-terms cut in funding for IDA driven by fiscal constraints in donor countries, so Tuesday’s commitment came as a pleasant surprise.
The total amount pledged was $1.5 billion more than the target set earlier this fall — and a boost from donors for Kim, who has spent the last few months trying to secure strong pledges, particularly from large donors like the United States.
Individual country pledges won’t be revealed until they are approved by the bank’s board in March.
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About the author
Paul Stephens
Paul Stephens is a former Devex staff writer based in Washington, D.C. As a multimedia journalist, editor and producer, Paul has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, CBS Evening News, GlobalPost, and the United Nations magazine, among other outlets. He's won a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for a 5-month, in-depth reporting project in Yemen after two stints in Georgia: one as a Peace Corps volunteer and another as a communications coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
