The World Bank Group has two ambitious goals: to end extreme poverty within a generation and boost shared prosperity.
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to countries around the world. We are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development. The World Bank Group comprises five institutions managed by their member countries.
Financial Products and Services
We provide low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to our client countries. These support a wide array of investments in such areas as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. Some of our projects are co-financed with governments, other multilateral institutions, commercial banks, export credit agencies, and private sector investors.
We also provide or facilitate financing through trust fund partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors. Many partners have asked the Bank to help manage initiatives that address needs across a wide range of sectors and regions.
Innovative Knowledge Sharing
We offer support to our clients through policy advice, research and analysis, and technical assistance. Our analytical work often underpins World Bank financing and helps inform developing countries’ own investments. In addition, we support capacity development in the countries we serve. We also sponsor, host, or participate in many conferences and forums on issues of development, often in collaboration with partners.
Priorities as an Inclusive Data Charter Champion
The World Bank's IDC Action Plan is in development.
Priorities as a partner of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
The Addis Accord acknowledges the need for data improvements, and the importance of enhancing country systems that produce, disseminate and use data. To achieve improvements, the Accord calls for increased financial and technical support and calls for stakeholders – international organizations, member states, civil society, foundations and the private sector – to work together in innovative partnerships to maximize their impact. The World Bank Group (WBG) will support this Accord by funding smarter and working smarter.
The WBG will support improvements to country systems by building on what works, ensuring country policy priorities determine where additional support is targeted by helping to maximize the value of what data is collected by making it accessible and usable.
The WBG makes three commitments to improve development data in collaboration with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
Firstly, the WBG is committed to the goal of universal civil registration of births, deaths and other vital events, including reporting cause of death, and access to legal proof of registration for all individuals by 2030. The WBG is committed to working with development partners to assist countries in achieving the intermediate target of 80% birth registration coverage by 2020 as outlined in the Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Scaling Up Investment Plan (2015-2024). Additionally, a Global Financing Facility is being launched, with US$100m committed to supporting Civil Registration and Vital Statistics strengthening.
Secondly, countries have indicated that more support is urgently needed to fund surveys to fill data gaps and measure sustainable development progress. The WBG and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) have secured additional funding that allow 10-15 countries to sustainably produce better surveys underlying poverty and key economic indicators. This support will be provided through the WBG’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB), which has been funding countries to improve their statistics for over a decade.
In addition, the WBG is working to establish a Trust Fund for Innovations in Development Data (TFIDD) to promote a common funding source for innovations in data production and use. The TFIDD would primarily fund scalable or replicable innovations in technology and innovations in approaches, such as new partnerships, to improve data on the ground. As a first step, pilot funding has been secured to identify “Collaborative Data Innovations for Sustainable Development” which will be identified in Fall 2016 and started over the following coming 6-9 months.
Lastly, as part of the WBG’s commitment to working smarter, the institution joins the International Monetary Fund, United Nations, and other Multilateral Development Banks in deepening their collaboration to improve information for the post-2015 agenda. These institutions’ commitment builds on their joint April 2013 Memorandum of Understanding to improve their partnership in statistical activities.
