The international development agency said Sum would be deployed to support 78 countries ‘most in need’.
The World Bank announced that it has secured nearly $24 billion in financing to provide loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries, which could generate a record $100 billion in total spending.
A World Bank spokesman told AFP that donors had pledged $23.7 billion to replenish the bank’s concessional lending facility, known as the International Development Association (IDA), up from about $23.5 billion in the last fundraising period of the past three years. He said it was a small increase over the dollars pledged. before.
Banks can use these funds to borrow from financial markets, leveraging up to about four times the amount raised to secure about $100 billion in new loans and grants in 2021, up from $93 billion.
“We believe the historic success of this IDA21 replenishment is a vote of confidence and support from donors and customers,” the World Bank said, referring to the current IDA financing round.
“This funding will be deployed to support the 78 countries that need it most,” World Bank President Ajay Banga said in a separate statement, referring to developing countries eligible for IDA support.
He added that it would provide “resources to invest in health, education, infrastructure and climate resilience” and help stabilize the economy and create jobs.
The World Bank’s announcement followed two days of talks in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, which is still reeling after President Yoon Seok-yeol declared martial law late Tuesday local time, before backing down under pressure from lawmakers.
IDA has become the single largest source of concessional or below-market climate finance, and about two-thirds of all IDA funding over the past decade has been used to support African countries, according to the World Bank, the international development organization it owns. 187 countries.
IDA replenishment is an important part of the bank’s operations and occurs every three years, with the majority of its funds coming from the United States, Japan and several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
This year, the United States announced that it would provide IDA with $4 billion in new funding, the largest amount ever, and other countries, including Norway and Spain, also significantly strengthened their financial support.
Thirty-five previous IDA-funded recipients, including those from China, Turkey and South Korea, graduated from countries with developed economies in recent decades, many of whom are now contributing to the fund.
