October 2018 update: What does the World Bank's latest pipeline data tell us?

It has been approximately two years since the Devex team began extracting, cleaning, and uploading pipeline data from the World Bank’s Monthly Operational Summaries, or MOS, to our funding database. Analyzing the latest data 20 months on, what have we learned? And what insights can the data give us into the priorities of the bank as we approach 2019? As of the release of the October 2018 MOS, the World Bank pipeline contained 1,135 projects — loans, credits, and grants currently being prepared or considered by the bank and its beneficiary governments. The forecasted budgets for the projects totaled $135 billion, of which $111 billion are to be contributed by the International Development Association, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. The remainder is to be contributed by third parties, mostly other donor institutions or beneficiary governments. In October 2017, those figures were slightly lower: 1,084 projects worth $128 billion, $106 billion of which was to be contributed by the bank. The top recipient countries of World Bank funding have not changed much in the past year. Eight of the top 10 recipients remain. Nepal and Kenya — previously places 4 and 9 with $6.5 billion and $3.7 billion in pipeline funding respectively in October 2017 — are no longer on the list. They have been replaced by newcomers Pakistan and Lebanon, places 2 and 10 with $8.7 billion and $3.3 billion respectively in October 2018. Lebanon leapt from less than $1 billion in budgeted funding in October 2017 to its current figure due to several new pipeline projects in economic development, water and sanitation, and employment, among others. South Asian countries are currently allocated much of the pipeline funding: Projects in India are budgeted $11.3 billion, projects in Pakistan $8.7 billion, and projects in Bangladesh $6.6 billion, taking three of the top four spots. Several African economies also figure in the top 10 most-funded countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. There was also little variance in the sectoral prioritization of the bank over the past year, although thanks to the general increase in the size of the pipeline, nearly every sector has a larger budgeted amount now than it did in October 2017. Transport traded posts with the Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice, and Environment and Natural Resources in 10th place was replaced by Governance. New projects in the pipeline Projects generally remain in the bank’s pipeline for about 13 months until they have been approved by the board of directors, as well as the relevant government agency in the beneficiary country. In theory, projects entering the MOS now should begin generating opportunities for World Bank implementers and consultants in about one year’s time — though some projects stall for longer in the pipeline, and some fly through in a single month. In October 2018, 105 new projects were added to the World Bank pipeline worth a total projected amount of $13 billion. Among the largest are an “additional funding” loan to the Dasu Hydropower project in Pakistan, financed with $1.38 billion from both the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; $560 million for a clean-up project of India’s Ganges River; $500 million for recovery efforts in Indonesia after the earthquake and tsunami there earlier this year; and two Tanzania-based projects focused on the country’s social safety net ($358 million) and water security ($350 million). These large additions to the pipeline partially explain the increase in financing during the past year. The large Pakistani hydropower project in particular explains the continued dominance of Energy and Extractives as the most funded sector. You can visit our interactive visualization of World Bank pipeline data to analyze the data yourself. The visualization and lists of projects will be updated every month after the release of the latest MOS. Be sure to check back to monitor projects relevant to your organization as they progress through the bank’s project preparation process.