Ideas to Action:

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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

Related Experts

Photo of Alan Gelb
Alan Gelb
Senior Fellow and Director of Studies
Photo of Andy Sumner
Andy Sumner
Visiting Fellow
Photo of Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall
Senior Fellow, President Emeritus
Photo of Owen Barder
Owen Barder
Vice President, Director of CGD Europe, and Senior Fellow
Photo of Todd Moss
Todd Moss
Senior Fellow
Vijaya Ramachandran
Senior Fellow

Recent Research

Recent Work

March 8, 2013
Publication
Implementing a Results-Based Approach to Strengthen IDA...
Alan Gelb

This brief outlines how to implement a results-based approach in a way consistent with the World Bank’s recent experience with results-based disbursement, including its approval of the new Program for Results (PforR) instrument.

October 9, 2012
Publication
Soft Lending without Poor Countries: Recommendations for...
The Future of IDA Working Group and Todd Moss

The Future of IDA Working Group shows how IDA could adapt to changing circumstances. By 2025, IDA-eligible countries will be half as large in number and one-third as large in population; they will also be almost exclusively African and much lower performing economically. The working group explores the options available to IDA, from small tweaks to the status quo to bold alternatives for the future.

March 10, 2011
Publication
IDA at 65: Heading Toward Retirement or a Fragile Lease...
Todd Moss and Benjamin Leo

By 2025, the number of IDA client countries will likely shrink substantially and primarily be smaller in size and overwhelmingly African. This working paper predicts how these changes will impact IDA's operational and financial models and recommends the World Bank begin addressing the implications of these developments sooner rather than later.

October 27, 2010
Publication
How Can Donors Create Incentives for Results and...
Alan Gelb

This paper offers a proposal to improve performance-based allocation systems of International Development Association (IDA) donors and others to better address the needs of fragile states and better link development allocations with performance.

September 7, 2006
Publication
Building Africa's Development Bank: Six Recommendations...
The AfDB Working Group

Donald Kaberuka, the new president of the African Development Bank, leads an institution whose financial standing has been restored from the near collapse of 1995, but whose operational credibility remains a work-in-progress. This CGD working group report offers external, independent advice to Kaberuka and the Bank's board of directors on broad principles to guide the Bank’s renewal. The report contains six bold yet achievable recommendations for management and shareholders as they address the urgent task of reforming Africa's development bank. Prominent among the recommendations is a strong focus on infrastructure.

January 19, 2006
Publication
A New Era at the Inter-American Development BankSix...
Ernesto Zedillo

This new report by a group comprising several of Latin America's most influential economic policymakers, CGD senior fellow Liliana Rojas Suarez, and CGD president Nancy Birdsall suggests ways for the IDB to become more flexible and to step up its support for market oriented reforms. The IDB's new president, Luis Alberto Moreno, warmly endorsed the recommendations, calling them "a key agenda."

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