WORLD BANK GROUP FISCAL YEAR HIGHLIGHTS
The World Bank Group, among the world’s largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Its member institutions—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)—work together and complement each other’s activities to achieve their shared goals of reducing poverty and improving lives. The Bank Group’s purpose is to advance ideas about international projects on trade, finance, health, poverty, education, infrastructure, governance, climate change, and more to benefit all people in developing countries, especially the poor seeking new opportunities. The passing of the Millennium Development Goals midpoint is a strong reminder that the international community must remain focused on meeting the basic needs of the world’s impoverished peoples. For the Bank Group, this means providing funding and technical assistance as well as redoubling efforts to improve service delivery and help countries strengthen investments in recovery and development projects. The global economic crisis heightens the need for action. To prevent it from wiping out decades of developmental progress, the Bank Group has increased efforts to protect the most vulnerable in the poorest countries, maintain long-term infrastructure investment programs, and sustain private sector–led economic growth and employment creation. It is also ramping up work to help governments strengthen their health systems, promoting innovative community-based practices to deal with global challenges such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. WORLD BANK GROUP ASSISTANCE In fiscal 2009, the World Bank Group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and guarantees. This fiscal year’s funding marks a 54 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record high for the Bank Group. Commitments from IDA totaled a record $14 billion for operations in 63 low-income countries, a 25 percent increase from $11.2 billion in fiscal 2008. IBRD committed $32.9 billion for 126 projects in middleincome and creditworthy low-income countries, a 144 percent increase over the $13.5 billion committed in fiscal 2008. IBRD is able to commit about $100 billion through fiscal 2011 to raise the living standard of the poor, support countries facing large budget shortfalls, and help sustain long-term investment projects. As the largest provider of multilateral financing for the private sector in the developing world, IFC committed $10.5 billion for its own account and mobilized an additional $4 billion in fiscal 2009, funding 447 projects that support sustainable private enterprises in developing and transition economies. MIGA issued guarantees totaling $1.4 billion for 26 projects in developing countries.
COLLABORATING TO RESPOND TO THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS Joint projects and programs by the Bank Group’s institutions focus on promoting sustainable development by expanding financial markets, issuing guarantees to investors and commercial lenders, and providing advisory services to create better investment conditions in developing countries. The shared priorities of the Bank and IFC led to 104 active advisory projects in IDA countries in fiscal 2009, up from 78 in fiscal 2008. This collaboration also resulted in commitments for 14 investment projects (with 33 others in the pipeline) in IDA countries in fiscal 2009. These initiatives reinforce strong public-private partnerships, which are particularly important during the current global economic crisis. More than half of the 447 investment projects IFC initiated in fiscal 2009 were in IDA countries—a portfolio distribution that will help move IFC toward meeting its mandate to implement half of its projects in IDA countries by fiscal 2011. In addition, IFC is working on a series of initiatives to support projects in the banking, trade, small- and medium-size enterprise, and infrastructure sectors in IDA countries. These initiatives are expected to total about $30 billion over the next three years. IFC’s $450 million additional contribution to the 15th Replenishment of IDA (IDA15) in fiscal 2009, as part of IFC’s IDA15 commitment totaling $1.75 billion, improved collaborative efforts to create better living conditions in developing countries, especially in Africa. In support of the human development targets of the Millennium Development Goals, IDA15 will make $42 billion available to 78 of the world’s poorest countries over fiscal 2009–11. The Bank Group’s investment projects are aimed largely at improving infrastructure services associated with poverty reduction and enhanced growth. In fiscal 2009, the Bank Group committed $20.7 billion to infrastructure, a critical sector to provide the foundation for rapid recovery from the crisis and to support job creation. The Sustainable Infrastructure Action Plan, launched in July 2008, will leverage up to $72 billion to provide additional financing of up to $149 billion in public and private investments over fiscal 2009–11. The largest multilateral investors and lenders in Eastern Europe—the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the EIB Group (the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund), and the World Bank Group—have pledged to provide up to €24.5 billion to support banking sectors in the region and to provide credit to businesses hit by the global economic crisis. Under a two-year plan for 2009–10, the Bank Group will provide a collective €7.5 billion. IFC is expected to contribute up to €2 billion, channeled through its crisis response initiatives in banking, infrastructure, trade, and other sectors and through its traditional investment and advisory services. IBRD will increase its lending to European and Central Asian countries in fiscal 2009–10 to €16 billion, of which as much as €3.5 billion is envisaged for addressing banking sector issues in emerging Europe.
THE WORLD BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2009
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