The World Bank Group (WBG) uses trust funds, a financing arrangement set up with contributions from one or more development partner, to complement core funding from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), in support of the World Bank Group’s goals. Trust funds allow the Bank to mobilize and direct concessional resources to strategic development priorities and to mobilize the resources and capabilities of other development actors through partnership programs.
Working in Partnership
The Bank works with a growing array of development partners, both traditional and non-traditional, formal and informal, to help meet our shared goals. From the ongoing partnership with our sovereign donors, through engagement with foundations and civil society, to an increasing focus on leveraging private capital, the Bank recognizes how transformative partnership can be when new ideas, perspectives and experiences are combined with the necessary financial resources.
Development partners work with the Bank through trust funds:
- to align and pool funding support with other development partners within agreed strategic frameworks.
- to benefit from the Bank's convening power, at both the international and country level, to maximize coordinated action and achieve impact at scale.
- to benefit from the Bank's extensive technical expertise, country experience and supervision capacity, its financial control framework and its ability to monitor and report on results.
- to provide grant funding in fragile, conflict-affected and other complex situations enabling the World Bank to engage and provide critical assistance in circumstances where traditional instruments are not well-suited.
- to support innovative or emerging policy areas, which the Bank and Partners view as a priority.
By the Numbers
In FY2021, the World Bank Group disbursed $3.82 billion in trust fund resources (not including FIFs), the bulk of which, $3.57 billion, was disbursed by the World Bank (IBRD and IDA combined). Almost three-quarters of World Bank-disbursed trust fund financing, or $2.55 billion, went to recipient-executed activities on the ground, representing approximately 5 percent of the World Bank’s total project disbursements.
IDA-only countries were the largest recipients at 66 percent, followed by IBRD countries (17 percent), IBRD-IDA blend countries (7 percent), and the balance to global or regional activities. The World Bank disbursed the remaining $1.03 billion in trust fund resources toward Bank-executed activities, including knowledge generation, analytical activities, and project implementation support. Over the past five years, trust fund disbursements for Bank-executed activities have represented 25 percent of the Bank’s administrative expenditures, including 63 percent of total expenditures for advisory services and analytics (ASA).
