The UK’s support to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA)

A review will assessing the value for money of the UK’s financial contribution to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and how well the UK uses its position as the largest bilateral donor to shape its policies and operations.

Score: Green/Amber
  1. Status: Completed
  2. Published: 31 May 2022
  3. Type: Full review
  4. Subject: Climate change and biodiversity, Development finance, Fragile states, Multilateral spend, Trade and economic development
  5. Assessment: Green/Amber
  6. Location: Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Sierra Leone
  7. Lead commissioner: Tamsyn Barton
  8. SDGs covered:Partnerships for the goals

Read the approach paper

Our approach

This review assesses the value for money of the UK’s financial contribution to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and how well the UK used its position as the largest bilateral donor to shape its policies and operations.

The review focuses predominantly on the period since 2015. It focuses on a number of thematic areas either recognised by IDA as key development challenges or that were prioritised by both IDA and the UK government across the review period. These include: i) climate resilience, ii) the COVID-19 response, iii) fragility, conflict and violence, and iv) equity, inclusion and safeguards.

Our review was carried out at the same time as the UK’s engagement in the negotiations for the IDA-20 replenishment, which concluded in December 2021. We therefore hoped that it would encourage the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to articulate its objectives, strategies and approach relating to this process.

The review enabled us to assess how well the UK pursued its aims to shape the evolution of a key instrument for multilateral aid and to ensure delivery of its intended development outcomes.

We sought to answer the following review questions:

  1. Relevance: How well aligned is IDA with the UK’s development priorities?
  2. Effectiveness: How effective is IDA’s support for partner countries?
  3. Efficiency: To what extent does the UK obtain value for money from IDA?

Timeline

Approach

Published 5 August 2021

Evidence gathering

Complete

Review publication

Published 31 May 2022

Government response

Published 12 July 2022

ICAI follow-up

Published 18 July 2023