Trust funds enhance the World Bank’s capacity to support delivery of results in our client countries. They provide resources to advance work on global public goods, fragile and conflict-affected states, disaster prevention and relief, global and regional partnerships and knowledge and innovation.
The role of trust funds has evolved dramatically during the last few decades, and the World Bank Group has undertaken initiatives and reforms to continuously improve the effectiveness of trust fund resources and activities. The World Bank’s latest reform to transition the IBRD/IDA trust fund portfolio into fewer and larger Umbrella 2.0 Programs aims to deliver transformative solutions for client countries and development partners through improved strategic alignment, increased efficiency, reduced fragmentation and transactions costs, and enhanced management oversight.
For our development partners, the reform elevates the World Bank-donor partnership to focus on strategy, enables collective action at scale on development challenges, supports knowledge exchange, and strengthens results reporting and visibility. For clients, the reform facilitates better alignment of trust fund activities with country priorities and enables trust fund resources to be better integrated in World Bank country programs.
Last Updated: May 21, 2021