What are the chances that you would have not one, but two opportunities to contemplate the World Bank’s capital constraint here on CGD’s website? Better yet, what are the chances you would want to?
The World Bank just successfully raised $52 billion for the International Development Association (IDA). What better way to build on that success than to declare IDA fundraising dead?
Not for the first time, the World Bank has reminded me of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, the hit TV show where judges Mel B, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, and Howard Stern rate amateur singers, jugglers, and comedians.
President Obama earlier this week made a last minute appeal to donors to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Offering a US pledge of $1 for every $2 pledged by other donors for a total US pledge of up to $5 billion, the president said, “don’t leave our money on the table.” Well, the initial commitments are in, and it appears that there will in fact be US money left on the table. Donors to the Global Fund announced total pledges of $12 billion, suggesting a US commitment of about $4 billion.
This is a joint post with Jenny Ottenhoff.
My colleague Scott Morris pointed out in a recent blog that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will likely surpass the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) as the single largest foreign assistance contribution the United States makes to a multilateral institution. He described this move as “multilateralism-lite” – or a reliance on earmarking through multilateral channels by sector or country – and suggests this isn’t an optimal approach to poverty reduction and development.
I have a goal of running a faster marathon at 47 than I did at 27. It helps that I wasn’t exactly a world class runner twenty years ago, and I still have a few years to reach my goal. But if you wanted to place a bet on me, you would probably want to know what my plan is for getting there.
In this week’s Wonkcast, recorded in the run-up to the institutions’ Spring Meetings, we consider these questions. My guests are Nancy Birdsall, founding president of CGD, and Todd Moss, vice president of programs and senior fellow.
Many obstacles to development transcend national borders and therefore cannot be adequately addressed within a single country. These include issues such as drug resistance and other cross-border health risks, financial crises contagion, money laundering, water scarcity, fisheries collapse and, of course, climate change. Economists call efforts to address these problems Global Public Goods (GPGs). Like other public goods, funding for GPGs is chronically in short supply: of $125 billion in annual official development assistance (ODA ) only about $3 billion goes to GPGs.
This is a joint post with Stephanie Majerowicz
World Bank presidents have often defined their success in part via ever-larger replenishments for IDA, the Bank’s soft loan window. But at his first ever Bank-Fund annual meetings this weekend in Tokyo, Jim Yong Kim should explain to the gathered illuminati why this is no longer an appropriate metric.
Related Podcast
The Future of IDA
After 52 years, IDA is facing a watershed moment. Drastic changes in both the supply and demand for the World Bank’s cheap long-term loans to governments of poor countries requires rethinking IDA’s purpose, tools, and broad role. In Tokyo, Kim should be sure that shareholders understand that the future of IDA depends, not on its size, but on adapting its mandate and business model to certain new realities: