The World Bank Group works with multilateral institutions, bilateral development partners, civil society organizations, the private sector, foundations, think tanks, parliamentarians, and other stakeholders to address global challenges, support global public goods, and achieve shared development goals. At the country, regional, sectoral, and global levels, our partnerships take the form of dialogue, knowledge exchange, and operational collaboration.
Partnerships with multilateral institutions
We engage closely with the G7, G20, IMF, other multilateral development banks, the EU, and the UN to address countries' development priorities and global challenges. At their Bali Summit in November 2022, G20 leaders voiced support for the Bank Group’s food security responses, including a $30 billion commitment for food and nutrition security. G20 leaders also welcomed the establishment of the Pandemic Fund—hosted by the World Bank—to address critical pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response gaps. The fund has already raised $2 billion in initial contributions, including $700 million from the United States. Under the Indonesian and Indian G20 presidencies, we discussed options to implement the recommendations of the G20 Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks, leading to a component of our report on the Bank Group’s Evolution in April 2023. We also co-chaired the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable with the IMF and India (G20 presidency) to accelerate debt restructuring processes, including the G20 Common Framework.
In support of the German and Japanese G7 presidencies, the Bank Group provided expertise and advocacy on climate mitigation and adaptation, sustainable infrastructure, and support for vulnerable poor countries amid compounded crises. The G7 recognized our efforts to channel a significant amount of financial support for Ukraine and welcomed the work of IFC and MIGA to support private investments. At the joint meeting of G7 Finance and Health Ministers in May 2023, they emphasized the importance of mobilizing prevention, preparedness, and response financing from various sources effectively and quickly to contain pandemics at the early stage. At the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023, G7 Leaders strongly supported the Bank Group’s Evolution to review and transform business models. The leaders also tasked Finance Ministers to deliberate specific actions by developing the Partnership for Resilient and Inclusive Supply-Chain Enhancement especially in collaboration with the Bank Group.
The Bank Group partners with the EU to boost country outcomes around joint priorities, including fragile contexts, Sub-Saharan Africa, water, food security, pandemics, digital development, climate, disaster risk management, governance, public sector reforms, and private sector development. We are coordinating with the EU on our response to the war on Ukraine, including cooperation on Rapid Damage and Needs Assessments and the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes initiative. The EU is also an important financial partner to the Bank Group and has committed $467 million to the Pandemic Fund.
We continued to work with UN agencies and other international organizations—including UNICEF, UNOPS, UNHCR, the WHO, the WTO, and the International Committee of the Red Cross—to strengthen the resilience of countries in an environment of intertwined crises while supporting their long-term development. The Bank Group and the UN bring our combined capacity and expertise to bear on critical issues including fragile contexts, refugees, food security, pandemics, social protection, and jobs. We draw on these partnerships at the UN General Assembly and other high-level UN forums, as well as through close collaboration with individual agencies on financing, policy support, and knowledge. This includes our engagement with UN agencies in Bank-financed operations, notably in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence where the Bank Group has limited or no presence on the ground or in situations of crisis or emergency. In Afghanistan, we provide significant support to deliver food, livelihood, health, and education services and to build civil society capacity through projects implemented by UN agencies and civil society organizations. In fiscal 2023, we issued joint statements with the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the IMF, the World Food Programme, and the WTO on the global food and nutrition security crisis, and engaged with UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and the International Labour Organization in the High-Level Advisory Panel of our World Development Report 2023 on international migration.
Engagements with civil society, the private sector, foundations, think tanks, and parliamentarians
Our work with civil society organizations is broad and considers the differentiated roles they play: from advocacy groups with significant reach and international operational organizations to regional players and local organizations delivering results for their communities. During the World Bank Group–IMF Annual and Spring Meetings in fiscal 2023, the Civil Society Policy Forum—our largest platform to engage these groups—brought together over 2,000 stakeholders, more than half of them from developing countries. This year, the Board introduced a new format for the roundtable that Executive Directors host for civil society organizations during these meetings, which increased interaction and the frank exchanges of views. Throughout the year, we collaborated with civil society organizations via discussions with technical experts on key issues such as gender; fragility, conflict, and violence; climate; debt; and IDA. We actively sought their feedback for global and country-specific consultations; recent examples include a consultation on the implementation of the Bank’s Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Strategy as well as country-level consultation on the Country Engagement Note for Yemen. Our regular touchpoints include a monthly newsletter and monthly global calls. We also work with faith-based organizations, such as the Moral Imperative to End Extreme Poverty Initiative, the UN Task Force on Religion and Development, the Joint Learning Initiative, and the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development.
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the private sector and philanthropy, we convened Insights & Opportunities briefings for these partners to discuss our response to rising fragility, the global learning crisis, and the nexus between climate and education. At the World Bank Group–IMF Annual and Spring Meetings, we engaged the private sector and foundations on the climate crisis—recognizing the critical role they can play in tackling its impacts—as well as partners representing financial services, technology, philanthropy, and other sectors to share best practices and perspectives. We work with more than 400 partners through the Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals; to date, the fund has disbursed over $10 million for initiatives that promote investments in environmental, social, and governance approaches and low-carbon development.
The Private Sector for Refugees initiative brings private sector growth to communities hosting forcibly displaced people by helping develop small and medium enterprises, which produce jobs. We support this work through partnership development and strategic communications. As of fiscal 2023, this initiative has worked in five countries, including countries in the Middle East and Africa and, most recently, in Poland, where it assessed the economic inclusion of Ukrainians who were forcibly displaced, resulting in actionable guidance for the government and private sector.
We cultivate and strengthen relationships with think tanks through regular discussions between their experts and Bank Group leadership to gather informed perspectives on challenges such as economic recovery, debt, global trade, conflict and fragility, climate change, and multilateral development bank reform. We also engage legislators and partner parliamentary organizations, notably the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF. In fiscal 2023, our events—including two Global Parliamentary Forums and virtual field visits to Kenya and Madagascar—convened more than 300 parliamentarians from around the world on priorities such as climate, debt, pandemic preparedness, gender, fragility, digitalization, human capital, and Ukraine. We also launched a capacity-building initiative for young parliamentarians—jointly sponsored by McGill University and our Parliamentary Network—that enrolled the first cohort of 14 members from every region.
Staff support local and global charities through the World Bank Group’s Community Connections Campaign, a part of our community outreach program. In fiscal 2023, the workplace giving program raised more than $12 million in donations from staff, consultants, retirees, and corporate matching funds. The campaign saw the most donors ever in each giving category and set a record for global staff participation, at over 79 percent. The program also helped staff respond to disasters throughout the year, raising over $1.5 million for relief in response to the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, floods in Pakistan, and the cyclone in Mozambique and Malawi.