What's in the World Bank's $226 billion project pipeline?

The process of getting a World Bank project to completion involves a lot of steps before legal agreements are signed and a delivery agent is approved. Currently, the bank has 408 projects in its portfolio that are in these early pipeline stages, awaiting final approval. These projects, according to the data available, have a cumulative project cost of $287.7 billion. Of these projects, 202 have been in the pipeline for over a year and were included in an analysis conducted by Devex last year. Another 206 new projects have been added to the pipeline in the last 12 months. Some 158 of these new projects do not have any indicated project cost, but those that do are worth almost $226 billion. Almost all of these new projects received an initial grant commitment from one of the bank’s two main institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association. The bank has a tentative commitment to provide $40.3 billion of support to the new projects. The amount committed may increase or decrease as the project moves through the bank’s project cycle. In this analysis, Devex will focus on the new projects, with all figures based on the amount committed by the bank. The data acquired comes from the bank’s project portal. What are the biggest projects? The bank’s largest commitment to any new project is $1.3 billion for the Transport Resilience and Connectivity Enhancement Project in Kazakhstan which aims to strengthen the resilience of transport systems and improve climate-adapted road connectivity. The second largest project has a grant amount of $1.1 billion — the Sustainable Congo Basin Forest Economies project set for Central Africa. It aims to scale up sustainable forest landscape management and livelihood opportunities for the countries within the Congo Basin forest. The third biggest project is a $1 billion Public Transport Sustainability Project in Argentina, with a goal to increase accessibility to affordable public transport for low-income populations. Where did the bank commit to? Regionally, Latin America and Caribbean received the most commitments with $8.7 billion. Followed by Europe and Central Asia with $8.2 billion, East Asia and Pacific with $6.1 billion, and then eastern and southern Africa also with $6.1 billion. On a country level, Brazil received the most support, with 19 pipelined projects worth $3.8 billion. The Philippines comes next with five projects with $3.1 billion, Ukraine with five projects worth $2.6 billion, Ethiopia with six projects worth $2.1 billion, and then Argentina with three projects worth $2 billion. There have been some geographical shifts from last year’s analysis. Then, Brazil did not even feature in the top 10, but this time around, it ranked first. The Philippines, Ukraine, and Ethiopia moved up the list. Uzbekistan, Angola, and Kazakhstan are all new entries in the list. What has the bank committed to? A majority of the listed projects do not have a specified sector yet, which we expect to change in the upcoming months, but Devex identified the most common sectors among those that are identified. Agriculture, fishing, and forestry top the list with 34 projects and $6.1 billion worth of grant commitments. Last year, health-related projects ranked first. Public administration comes next with 30 projects amounting to $5.6 billion, transportation with almost $5 billion, energy and extractives with $3.3 billion, and then education with $2.8 billion. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.