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The World Bank’s International Development Association, or IDA, its fund for the poorest countries, is often a critical lifeline, especially when other financing is difficult to come by.
“Without IDA Malawi will perish,” Malawi’s ambassador to the United States, Esme Jynet Chombo, tells Devex in the final special episode of Devex’s weekly This Week in Global Development podcast that centered around the World Bank-International Monetary Fund’s annual Spring Meetings. The country is battered by challenges that keep reversing progress, she said, explaining that the IDA funding helps support irrigation, health care facilities, and infrastructure.
“Unless there is a bigger tranche, with what has been going on, I don't see Malawi recovering in the near future,” she said. “So I cannot overemphasize the help, or let me say the transformation that IDA has been doing in Malawi.”
This year, the World Bank is going to donors to try and raise the biggest IDA replenishment ever — about $30 billion, which it could leverage to lend or grant about $100 billion to borrower countries. But the ask comes at a tricky time for many of those donors, who are facing political and fiscal challenges at home.
There are 1.9 billion people living in the 75 IDA countries, one-third of which are poorer today than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 90% of people facing hunger and malnutrition globally live in IDA countries, nearly half of which are considered fragile or conflict-affected states.
Devex spoke with Dirk Reinnerman, the director of IDA resource mobilization and IBRD corporate finance at the World Bank, about his IDA replenishment pitch to donors, and how it ties into broader bank reforms.
“The value proposition for IDA on impact is very strong for a variety of reasons,” he said, explaining that it is unique because it is the largest concessional fund, is AAA-rated, and leverages every donor dollar 3.5 times over. “That's a very important value proposition in particular, at a time when our donor partners are also constrained back home.”
For a complete discussion of how this IDA replenishment is different — including more public advocacy efforts, how it works, and what borrowing countries want to see — tune into the full podcast episode, which also features Gargee Ghosh, the president of global advocacy and policy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Serah Makka, the Africa executive director at ONE.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
