The Future of IDA Working Group

In 2011, the Center for Global Development launched the Future of IDA Working Group, an effort to bring together serious scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to think through specific options for World Bank management and shareholders to consider as the demand for IDA assistance was changing. Many countries, including some of IDA’s largest and best-performing clients, were and are preparing to graduate from needing IDA assistance. The group’s final report was released in October 2012.

One of the report’s key recommendations for a transition window for new graduates was adopted in the IDA-17 agreement finalized in late 2013. Several other recommendations from the report remain on the agenda as shareholders contemplate future replenishment rounds.

Projections by Todd Moss and Ben Leo suggest that by 2025, IDA’s client base will be less than half its current size and almost entirely African, creating major implications for IDA’s operational model, future replenishments, its relationship with other multilaterals, and more.

This work follows previous CGD efforts to shape the World Bank, including the The Hardest Job in the World: Five Crucial Tasks for the New President of the World Bank, and a report prepared ahead of the IDA 15 negotiations, The World Bank’s Work in the Poorest Countries: Five Recommendations for a New IDA.

Working Group Members:

Jean-Michel Severino (Co-Chair)
Todd Moss (Co-Chair)
Owen Barder
Nancy Birdsall
Francois Bourguignon
Jessica Einhorn
Alan Gelb
Manuel Hinds
Ravi Kanbur
Devesh Kapur
Ben Leo
William Lyakurwa
Callisto Madavo
Ng’andu Magande
Elene Makonnen
Pradeep Mehta
Juan Antonio Morales Anaya
Vijaya Ramachandran
Enrique Rueda-Sabater
Andy Sumner
Finn Tarp
Jacques van der Gaag
Shengman Zhang