With less than two months before the pledging conference to raise money for the World Bank’s International Development Association, its most concessional fund for the lowest-income countries, the bank’s annual meetings this week come at a pivotal moment in the negotiations.
Today, the bank is hosting an IDA Forum, where it is expected to share proposals for IDA’s 21st replenishment policy priorities — a draft of which Devex obtained. The discussions so far paint a complex picture of ambitious targets, competing visions, and high stakes for the world’s lowest-income nations, which have been buffeted by headwinds from debt distress to conflict and climate change.
IDA is a “lifeline” for the 77 lowest-income countries, World Bank President Ajay Banga said at a recent Reuters event. “We’re critical to their needs” and in many cases the source of half their development money, he added.