We are a diverse group of non-profit organizations with varying missions that collectively believe in the value of the international financial institutions (IFIs).

Find relevant reports from our members and the Congressional Research Service, publications from the IFIs, and other useful resources.

The World Bank today faces parallel challenges to its operations and governance. The institution has since its founding provided financing on favourable terms to developing country governments to support national development efforts. Alongside these country demands, there are now calls for a new set of mandates and activities associated with global public goods. Advocates would have the Bank allocate large sums toward climate mitigation, pandemic response and preparedness, and other activities that may or may not align with national priorities in developing countries. The ability of the World Bank to strike an appropriate balance between country demands and global goods depends on the institution’s shareholders. Yet, the deterioration in the bilateral relationship between the United States and China now threatens to undermine effective governance at the institution. This paper considers the challenge of competing demands on World Bank resources and the degree to which a resolution could depend on an agreement between the United States and China, one that sets the strategic direction of the institution and addresses the growing impasse on the question of China’s shareholding in the Bank.

development-finance-cooperation-amidst-great-power-competition-what-role-world-bank.pdf

Development Finance Cooperation Amidst Great Power Competition: What Role for the World Bank?

The Disclosure Example Book is intended to be a resource for those interested in improving the transparency of development finance institutions (DFIs). By providing examples of disclosure of a broad range of data, it demonstrates how disclosure can be improved at all DFIs. We hope that this book will be a resource to both DFIs and to other stakeholders with an interest in improving DFI transparency. 

Disclosure-Example-Book.pdf

International financial institutions (IFIs) or multilateral development banks (MDBs), so-called because they are funded by multiple countries and partners, provide financial assistance to developing countries to promote economic and social development. Congressional support is critical to U.S. financing for the MDBs: under U.S. law, Congress must enact legislation that allocates funding before the U.S. government is able to contribute. Congress also plays an oversight role in U.S. relationships with MDBs.

International Development Association
Part of the World Bank Group, the International Development Association (IDA) makes grants as well as loans on concessional terms (an interest rate of zero or a very low rate well below market rates) to the world’s 74 poorest countries. Overseen by 173 shareholder nations, IDA seeks to boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people’s living conditions. For shareholders that contribute financially, including the United States, IDA is an efficient channel for directing development assistance to the poorest countries. Because contributions to IDA are pooled with repayments from former and current IDA recipients, IDA is able to provide a substantial and stable source of funding that countries can rely on to help fund their development priorities.

U.S. pledge to IDA-20 (2022-2025): $3.5 billion

The African Development Fund (AfDF), part of the African Development Bank Group, supports its 38 regional member countries in their efforts to reduce poverty by spurring sustainable economic development and social progress. The AfDF provides grants as well as loans at highly concessional rates. AfDF-eligible countries include those that are on their way to becoming new emerging markets, as well as those that remain fragile and need special assistance to deliver basic services to their populations. 

U.S. pledge to AfDF-16 (2023-2025): $591 million

The Asian Development Fund (AsDF) provides grants to the Asian Development Bank’s 15 lower-income member countries to reduce poverty reduction and improve people’s quality of life. The grants support development projects and programs, including infrastructure, policy support and reform, production capacity, human development, environmentally sustainable investments, good governance, capacity building, and regional cooperation. Member countries of AsDF are eligible for grants if they have lower incomes, are considered to have a moderate or high risk of debt distress, and/or are small island economies. 

U.S. pledge to AsDF-13 (2021-2024): $174.4 million

International Fund for Agricultural Development	

In partnership with national governments, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) provides more than $1 billion in loans and grants annually to support programs and projects in rural areas. These programs enable and equip people to grow more food, improve their nutrition, better manage their natural resources, learn new skills, start small businesses, build strong community-centered organizations, and gain a voice in decisions that affect their lives. All IFAD projects are country-led and country-owned. Projects are designed in consultation with smallholder farmers and other residents of rural areas with a strong focus on the inclusion of marginalized groups. 

U.S. pledge to IFAD-12 (2022-2024): $129 million

This fact sheet is provided by the International Financial Institutions Working Group, a coalition of organizations committed to promoting effective US leadership in multilateral development institutions.

IFI Working Group Info Brief: Key IFI Appropriations Accounts

IFI Appropriations Accounts.docx.pdf

Summary of FY24 President’s Budget Request (PBR) International Financial Institutions (IFI) and Related Programs 

Treasury’s request for the Multilateral Development Banks for FY24 is an overall 20% increase above FY23 requested level. This budget request is a reflection of Treasury’s view of the level of need and depth of the crises the country and the world are facing. 

The MDBs play key roles in the effort to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, foster economic and social inclusion, and fight climate change, which advances U.S. foreign policy objectives of sustaining peace and stability, promoting security, and protecting the global environment. The MDBs have also played a leading role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The FY24 budget requests $2.293 billion for the MDBs, $1.479 billion of this is for IDA as part of the US’s pledge of $3.5 billion (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2025). 

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) - $233.3 million
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International Development Association (IDA): $1.479 billion, of which $49 million is for arrears
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African Development Bank (AfDB): $54.6 million. 
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African Development Fund (AfDF): $224 million, of which $27 million is for arrears.
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Asian Development Fund (AsDF): $119.4 million of which $84 million is for the subsidy cost of $1 billion of loan guarantees to support the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific, and of which $35 million is for the Energy Transition Mechanism Partnership Fund. 
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International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): $81.8 million of which $35 million is for the Enhanced Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP+) and $3.833 million is to eliminate arrears.
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Arrears: Arrears are unmet commitments to MDBs providing concessional loans and grants that are past due. Outstanding arrears jeopardize U.S. influence at the MDBs and these institutions’ effectiveness. Until recently, there was little political will to pay down arrears. The COVID-19 crisis renewed U.S. interest in paying down arrears, both as a way to signal its commitment to multilateralism and as a way of providing MDBs with additional liquidity to address the pandemic. Through FY20, U.S. arrears to the MDBs amounted to just under $2.5 billion, with the largest amounts owed to IDA, the AfDF, the AsDF, and the GEF. The FY24 budget request includes funds to pay down arrears at IDA, AfDF, AsDF, IFAD, and the GEF, but this amount would not clear U.S. arrears owed to all these institutions. 

Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund (TESF): The Budget request seeks to authorize the Treasury to lend up to $21 billion from the TESF split between the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) at the International Monetary Fund.

IDA Replenishment: The PBR includes meeting full funding levels for IDA to meet its commitments to IDA20. Like arrears, underfunding IDA compared to the U.S.’s commitment would jeopardize the U.S.’s influence at the MDBs and across the international landscape by damaging the U.S.’s negotiating power and reducing the international finance institution's effectiveness at delivering on its goals.   

Debt relief: The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) is an agreement among bilateral official creditors to suspend debt service payments from the world’s 73 poorest countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a way to temporarily ease the financing constraints for those countries and free up scarce money that they can use to mitigate the human and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments Beyond the DSSI aims to address sovereign debt challenges and ensure broad participation of creditors with fair burden sharing and importantly brings in official creditors that were not part of the Paris Club process. The FY24 budget requests $52 million for funds to support the G20 DSSI and the Common Framework.

Climate: The significant increase in Treasury’s FY24 budget on climate requests reflects the U.S.’s commitment to climate action.
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Food Security: The PBR includes a $40 million request for the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). GAFSP is a multilateral financing platform that provides financial assistance to governments, farmer and producer organizations, and the private sector in the form of grants, concessional loans, and blended finance. It also provides technical assistance and advisory services, supporting more than 16 million rural people including nearly 7 million women since 2010.

President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2024 - Funding for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) 

IFI WG Hill Handout - FY24 Appropriations .pdf

IFI WG Hill Handout - FY24 Appropriations

This is a draft of proposed reforms to the World Bank for 2023 that would seek to increase transparency. 

A proposal to reform the transparency of the World Bank IDA and IFC in 2023

World Bank Roadmap - Transparency Reforms.V4 (1).docx

E3G’s Maria Pastukhova moderated a panel workshop on World Bank gas finance, within the civil society policy forum of the World Bank Spring Meetings, hosted by The Big Shift Global and Climate Action Network.

Colleagues from countries where the World Bank Group is supporting gas joined this panel on World Bank gas finance. The panel discussed the myths around gas as a transition fuel, exposed the impacts of ongoing WBG investment in gas and outlined the arguments for leapfrogging to renewables.

Maria Pastukhova, Senior Policy Advisor, E3G

Bronwen Tucker, Oil Change International

Haneea Isaad, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)

Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, Spaces for Change

Speakers at Exploding the Myths: World Bank Gas Finance Panel Discussion

International financial institutions (IFIs) provide financial and technical assistance to lower-income nations to support economic growth and improve people’s living standards. Financial assistance may be in the form of grants or loans with zero or low interest rates.

IFI-Fact-Sheet-2022.pdf

The Congressional IFI Education Caucus and the IFI Working Group hosted a virtual panel discussion on how the IFIs are responding to the growing global food crisis, highlighting the work of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America

Rep. Dean Phillips, Co-Chair of the IFI Education Caucus, 

Samuel Munzele Maimbo, Director of IDA Resource Mobilization,

 Thouraya Triki, Director of IFAD’s Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division

What is the role of the IFIs in responding to the growing hunger crisis?

The stakes are high for the African Development Fund (AfDF) as it kicks off its replenishment fundraising exercise this spring. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are still grappling with the health and economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, with over 30 million of their citizens pushed into poverty since the onset of pandemic. According to the IMF, an extra $425 billion in SSA government spending will be needed over 2021-2025 to make up for the lost ground in the fight against poverty. African countries are also strongly impacted by the war in Ukraine, including through higher food and energy prices. Ninety percent of East Africa’s wheat imports, for example, come from Russia and Ukraine. Debt dynamics in the region are increasingly precarious, with nearly half of sub-Saharan African countries in or at a high risk of debt distress. We anticipate increased volatility in capital flows to the region as global monetary conditions tighten. And accelerating climate change disproportionately threatens sub-Saharan Africa, a region that produces less than 3 percent of global emissions but is home to a third of the world’s droughts.

replenishing-africas-development-fund-time-for-ambition.pdf

Replenishing Africa’s Development Fund: A Time for Ambition

With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting government balance sheets especially hard in low-income countries, the World Bank’s shareholders—including the United States—agreed to an advance replenishment of its grant and low-interest loan window, the International Development Association (IDA). By holding a pledging session one year early, donors sought to ensure IDA, which serves the world’s poorest countries, would have the resources to provide financing where it was needed most. In December 2021, following the final meeting of the 20th replenishment of IDA (IDA20), the World Bank announced a $93 billion replenishment package, leveraging $23.5 billion in contributions from 48 high- and middle-income countries. The United States reclaimed its position as IDA’s top donor, pledging $3.5 billion over three years to support pandemic response and an economic rebound in the world’s poorest countries.

understanding-IDA20.pdf

This Action Plan stems from a meeting convened in April 2022 by Secretary Yellen on “Tackling Food Insecurity - The Challenge and Call to Action”, which included the heads of the IMF, World Bank, IFAD, and the Finance Ministers of Indonesia and Germany representing the G20 and the G7, respectively, as well as lead technical experts on food security and agriculture from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

The Russian war against Ukraine is the latest global shock that is exacerbating the sharp increase in both acute and chronic food insecurity in recent years driven by conflict, climate change and economic downturns, such as those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.  The IFIs are working swiftly to bring to bear their financing, policy engagement, technical assistance, and knowledge work to address rising food insecurity.  TheIFI Action Plan to Address Food Insecurity details how IFIs are stepping up, surging, and scaling their work on food security and agriculture.

IFI_Action_Plan.pdf

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION (IFI) ACTION PLAN TO ADDRESS FOOD INSECURITY

As part of the DFI Transparency Initiative, Publish What You Fund has developed the DFI Transparency Tool. Based on over two years of research, the DFI Transparency Tool has two functions. First, it is intended to provide granular guidance to development finance institutions (DFIs) about the types of information that a range of stakeholders value and should therefore be disclosed publicly. 1 Second, it forms the basis of future and ongoing assessments of the transparency of a group of leading DFIs. The purpose of this second function is to provide an independent means with which to assess and improve the state of DFI transparency. Publish What You Fund will carry out assessments that will score and rank the transparency of DFIs in a publicly released DFI Transparency Index. 

The aims of the DFI Transparency Index are: 

To assess the transparency of the world’s foremost DFIs. 

To encourage DFIs to carry out their functions in a transparent manner. 

To track and encourage progress and facilitate peer learning, while holding DFIs to account. 

This methodology is informed by the research that has been conducted as part of the DFI Transparency Initiative. This research has been presented through a series of working papers, blogs, and a research report that accompanied the launch of the DFI Transparency Tool in November 2021. The Publish What You Fund team has been supported by consultations with individual stakeholders from many institutions and organisations and conducted stakeholder consultations on the methodology.

DFI Transparency Index Methodology - Final.pdf

In response to a severe and urgent crisis, the President of the United States of America is announcing the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) to support developing countries and communities in vulnerable situations around the world in their efforts to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change. These impacts are already being felt, making investments in developing countries’ climate resilience more urgent than ever. 

The President will work with Congress to provide $3 billion in adaptation finance annually for PREPARE by FY2024. It is the largest U.S. commitment ever made to reduce climate impacts on those most vulnerable to climate change worldwide. 

PREPARE will serve as the cornerstone of the U.S. government response to operationalizing the President’s pledge and addressing the increasing impacts of the global climate crisis. PREPARE activates a coordinated, whole-of-government approach and will serve as the framework that brings together the diplomatic, development, and technical expertise of the United States to help more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change by 2030, to track with the timeline for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. Through PREPARE, the United States will respond to partner countries’ priorities, strengthen cooperation with other donors, integrate climate risk considerations into multilateral efforts, and strive to mobilize significant private sector capital for adaptation. As a result, PREPARE will help save lives and livelihoods, support sustainable and healthy communities and ecosystems, and reduce the impacts of climate change.

Full-PREPARE-Plan.pdf

President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE)

Transcript of the House Financial Services Hearing on the State of the International Financial System, which occurred on April 6, 2022. 

President Biden signal this commitment last year with his first budget proposal, when boosted us contributions to the multilateral development bank's global climate finance efforts and food insecurity programs by 73%. This was followed by Secretary Yellen support for a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund, which provided $275 billion liquidity boost to emerging economies to help them respond to the global pandemic. There will also be a new test of the strength of the international financial system and its international financial institution

House_Financial_Services_on_State_of_the_International_Financial_System_-_POLITICO_PRO.pdf

House Financial Services Hearing on State of the International Financial System

The undersigned are members of the NGO Collaborative and its partners and allies, a group of NGOs, researchers, and practitioners dedicated to reaching SDG 1 through economic inclusion programs that help the poorest increase assets and income. Members have regularly engaged with the Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI) housed at the World Bank to support robust knowledge exchange, expand awareness of best practices, and contribute to the growing evidence base for social and economic inclusion programs. 

Economic inclusion programs help boost the income and assets of the world’s poorest individuals and households with a “big push” of coordinated interventions – usually a combination of cash or in-kind transfers, skills training or coaching, access to finance, and links to market support.

NGO-Collaborative-IDA-Letter.pdf

The Administration budget proposal for FY 2022 proposes to exempt securities issued by IDA from Securities and Exchange Commission registration requirements by according IDA securities the same exemption that currently applies to the securities of IBRD, IFC and other MDBs in which the United States is a member. If granted, over the next five years, the exemption will permit IDA to provide countries nearly $700 million of additional resources on the existing pledge platform.

The U.S. Congress is at work this week to reach an agreement on an FY22 spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and provide much needed aid to Ukraine. The bill would also include annual funding for the International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

One item BWC hopes to see in the bill is an exemption for the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) from costly registration requirements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If granted, this exemption will permit IDA to provide low-income countries nearly $700 million in additional resources. Read this explainer on the issue published by BWC’s Legislative Working Group.

LWG_Securities IDA Explainer_Final_1.pdf

Explainer: Securities Registration Exemption for IDA

Amidst the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis and the ongoing global pandemic, the U.S. Congress has passed an omnibus spending bill for FY22 including annual funding for the International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The good news is that Biden Administration requests for the World Bank (IBRD and IDA) annual appropriations for FY22 were fully funded, and certain IMF support for low-income country funding. The African Development Bank and African Development Fund were also fully funded including paying down some AfDF arrears (unmet contributions). The Asian Development Fund was also fully funded including some arrears. The bad news is that Congress failed to secure key authorizations required to lend SDRs to the IMF, to provide a SEC registration exemption to IDA, and to fund the next replenishment of the Asian Development Fund. It also did not deliver on paying down arrears to IDA. Below we outline what was funded, what was not, and the implications for the IFIs.

Amidst the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis and the ongoing global pandemic, the U.S. Congress has passed an omnibus spending bill for FY22 including annual funding for the International Financial Institutions (IFIs). Read analysis from BWC’s Legislative Working Group on what was funded, what was not, and the implications for the IFIs.

BWC FY22 Omnibus Analysis_Final.pdf

This paper aims to determine the extent to which gender was considered in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) operations aimed at responding to the COVID pandemic and associated economic crisis. Using keywords to identify COVID response projects, we found 264 projects approved between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021 for our analysis. We found that 135 projects (51 percent) had publicly available project documents for analysis, and of these, 32 projects (24 percent) included gender-focused indicators in their results frameworks. Most gender indicators focus on women as participants of social protection programs or as owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Our recommendations to the IDB include increasing transparency by publishing more project documents and ensuring gender indicators are included in projects’ results frameworks across sectors. This project builds on previous analysis of gender integration in COVID response projects at the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank. 

This paper aims to determine the extent to which gender was considered in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) operations aimed at responding to the COVID pandemic and associated economic crisis. Using keywords to identify COVID response projects, we found 264 projects approved between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021 for our analysis. We found that 135 projects (51 percent) had publicly available project documents for analysis, and of these, 32 projects (24 percent) included gender-focused indicators in their results frameworks.

idb-covid-19-response-projects-and-gender-integration.pdf

IDB COVID-19 Response Projects and Gender Integration

Many stress the critical role of the private sector in filling yawning sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) infrastructure finance gaps, only widened by the pandemic. Our paper looks in detail at financially closed (construction-ready) transactions with private participation in SSA from 2007–2020. Despite the “billions to trillions” vision, we find no sustained upward trends for such transactions in volumes of total finance, multilateral development bank (MDB) finance, private finance, the share or volume of local private finance, participation by international institutional investors, or finance from bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs). External finance sources were larger than local sources, with Chinese DFIs dominant and the US DFI a marginal actor. Among MDBs, the African Development Bank provided the most finance cumulatively. Investment in renewable energy outpaced investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, but MDBs continued to make significant fossil fuel investments. Investment in water and social infrastructure remains about 5 percent of the total. 

Policy implications include: the urgent need for greater MDB efforts to use their broad toolkits to catalyze more private infrastructure finance, including from local sources and in social sectors; the case for building on the African Development Bank’s advantages; the importance of growing the US Development Finance Corporation’s efforts; and the strong logic for more collaboration among infrastructure finance providers to SSA, including China, with MDBs providing not only finance but also fora for collaboration and support for the policy and institutional reforms that build sustainability and reduce risk for all actors. 

Many stress the critical role of the private sector in filling yawning sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) infrastructure finance gaps, only widened by the pandemic. Our paper looks in detail at financially closed (construction-ready) transactions with private participation in SSA from 2007-2020.

stuck-near-ten-billion-public-private-infrastructure-finance-sub-saharan-africa.pdf

Stuck Near Ten Billion: Public-Private Infrastructure Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa

On February 17, 2022, CGD Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow Daouda Sembene appeared before the National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing titled “The Role of the International Monetary Fund in a Changing Global Landscape.” Watch the full hearing here. 

On February 17, 2022, CGD Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow Daouda Sembene appeared before the National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing titled “The Role of the International Monetary Fund in a Changing Global Landscape.”

testimony-role-international-monetary-fund-changing-global-landscape.pdf

Testimony on the Role of the International Monetary Fund in a Changing Global Landscape

Resources

Development Finance Cooperation Amidst Great Power Competition: What Role for the World Bank?

Example Book of DFI Disclosure Practices

IFI Working Group Info Brief: Key IFI Appropriations Accounts

IFI WG Hill Handout - FY24 Appropriations

An impactful and accountable World Bank

Speakers at Exploding the Myths: World Bank Gas Finance Panel Discussion

IFI Fact Sheet

What is the role of the IFIs in responding to the growing hunger crisis?

Replenishing Africa’s Development Fund: A Time for Ambition

ABCs of the IFIs: Understanding IDA