To become a better Bank, we reorganized our practice groups into five thematic knowledge Vice Presidency units—People, Prosperity, Planet, Infrastructure, and Digital—to confront the world’s intertwined challenges not just through funding, but with knowledge. We have earned and inherited decades of knowledge through our work, and this new structure makes it easier for us to share it with our clients.
Results by Theme
People
At-A-Glance
We are supporting health, education, and social protection services to improve people’s lives:
- We are working alongside partners on social protection programs to reach 500 million people by the end of 2030 – aiming for half of these beneficiaries to be women.
- As part of our global effort to provide a basic standard of care through every stage of a person’s life, we are helping countries deliver quality, affordable health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030.
- Our active portfolio has improved schooling for 280 million students, including 137 million women and girls, as of December 31, 2023
Human capital. As countries deal with multiple global crises, it’s even more important for them to invest in human capital—the knowledge, skills, and good health people need to achieve their potential. The World Bank’s Human Capital Project supports these efforts with a combination of research, data, analytics, and country and global engagement across 95 member economies. Our biannual ministerial conclaves in fiscal 2024 focused on creating more jobs through investing in human capital and on leveraging technology to improve human capital outcomes.
Our report, How to Protect, Build, and Use Human Capital to Address Climate Change, recommended strategies to engage people as agents for climate action. We also issued policy briefs on strengthening food security and human capital, gender, and climate change, helping countries and partners integrate human capital policies as they address crises amid shrinking fiscal space.
Financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Canadian government, the Human Capital Umbrella Program provides a flexible financing model that allows donors and partners to support broader, more systematic institutional and policy reforms. Since 2019, it has provided 16 countries in Africa and South Asia with analytics and technical assistance to address human capital challenges. The program has informed more than 26 Bank operations totaling over $7 billion, reaching more than 57 million people.
Social protection and labor systems. Over the last two decades we have built social protection programs that are helping more than 280 million poor and vulnerable people in 88 countries with effective social protection to withstand natural and man-made shocks that can exacerbate poverty and food insecurity.
In fiscal 2024, we committed to work alongside partners to reach 500 million people with adaptive social protection by the end of 2030—aiming for half of these beneficiaries to be women. To achieve this goal, we’re utilizing innovative digital cash transfer systems to help those in need receive resources directly and efficiently. Our strategy, The Compass, sets out our vision for universal social protection and guides our involvement, capacity, knowledge, and impact in delivering related programs.
Despite progress, coverage gaps persist, necessitating better policies to protect and empower people amid demographic shifts, the green transition, and technological disruptions. In fiscal 2024, we committed an additional $5 billion for social protection, including $2.5 billion from IDA, bringing the total active portfolio to $28.5 billion. We helped strengthen social registries and electronic payment systems in more than 50 countries and we improved food and nutrition security for 50 million poor and vulnerable households. We also helped communities build resilience against climate shocks and improve their livelihoods through income-generating opportunities.
Our 105 jobs and skills training programs, active in 58 countries, empowered youth and women, and we assisted 76 countries to manage their demographic transition through pension reforms and disability programs. We kickstarted 10 Global Skills Partnerships to support international labor mobility.
Health services. Strengthening health systems is essential to achieving progress on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). More than half the world’s population, about 4.5 billion people, lack access to essential health services according to our latest UHC Global Monitoring Report. More than 2 billion people face severe financial hardship paying out-of-pocket for those services.
In response, we have committed to help countries deliver quality, affordable health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030 as part of our global effort to provide a basic standard of care through every stage of a person’s life. The Bank, in partnership with the World Health Organization, is also supporting Japan to launch a UHC Knowledge Hub to enhance healthcare systems in developing countries.
Our $29.4 billion global health portfolio includes 169 projects that improve health outcomes, especially for poor and vulnerable people, by strengthening UHC and public health. For example, a new regional health security program in Western and Central Africa is ramping up preparedness and response capacities for health emergencies for more than 620 million people.
To promote data and digital solutions in health care, we published a report with strategic policy recommendations, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone. In response to the rising negative health impacts of climate change in low- and middle-income countries, we announced a new Climate and Health Program in fiscal 2024 to help countries assess their climate and health vulnerabilities and increase partnerships and investments in climate-resilient health systems. To increase the impact of collective action, a Development Bank Working Group for Climate-Health Finance was established in July 2023 with 11 development banks. The group has already launched a joint roadmap to urgently scale climate and health action.
To improve the health of women, children and adolescents, the Global Financing Facility (GFF), a global country-led partnership hosted at the World Bank, continues to increase financing and technical assistance in GFF partner countries. As of June 2024, the GFF has committed a total of $1.5 billion for grants in 38 countries. Since partnering with the GFF, countries have reached 100 million pregnant women with access to four or more pregnancy care visits; 130 million women with safe delivery care; and 630 million women and adolescents with modern contraceptives.
To boost resilience to future pandemics, the Pandemic Fund approved its first round of grants to 37 countries across six regions. In July 2024, the United States pledged up to $667 million, and Germany pledged $54 million to the Fund as it works toward raising at least $2 billion to meet strong demand from low- and middle-income countries. The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program Trust Fund allocated $139 million through June 2024 to support 43 country and regional efforts in health emergency preparedness and response. To mitigate the emerging threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), we produced an AMR framework for action with recommendations for preventative actions in World Bank operations.
Education and training. A learning and skills crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic is hindering foundational learning and skills development, leaving young people unprepared for the workforce. In response, the World Bank is funding projects and research reports—including Education Finance Watch 2023, Building Better Formal TVET Systems, Making Teacher Policy Work, and the RAPID Framework for Learning Recovery to Acceleration—to enable improvements in education systems across the world.
We are the largest source of international financing for education with 149 projects totaling $26.1 billion. We are the largest international financier of education in fragility, conflict, and violence settings through $6.4 billion in active projects. Since 2015, we have managed 63 percent of all project implementation grants for the Global Partnership for Education, totaling $4.2 billion.
We work closely with partners to improve learning and education systems around the world. For example, we co-promote foundational learning through the Coalition for Foundational Learning and the Accelerator Program. The Early Learning Partnership multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank, seeks to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children. We also collaborate with the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel to inform public education policies.
In fiscal 2024, the Scottish Government joined our Foundational Learning Compact Trust Fund to support learning outcomes for children, with a particular focus on inclusive education. We also launched the Tertiary Education and Skills Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund with the Mastercard Foundation to improve access to inclusive, quality, equitable, and resilient education and training.
Addressing learning poverty. Students are attending educational institutions but not acquiring the skills they need to succeed in the job market. Officials often underestimate the severity of this crisis and don’t adapt their investment strategies accordingly. The World Bank Group has helped shift the focus from student enrollment to learning and has worked with partners to spur evidence-based action to improve learning. As of December 31, 2023, the Bank’s active portfolio has improved educational opportunities for 280 million students, including 137 million women and girls.
Prosperity
At-A-Glance
We are enabling prosperity through jobs, tax policy, economic policy, financial inclusion, and small business support programs. In fiscal 2024, we:
- Started a review with the IMF of the Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries to better identify debt vulnerabilities and act before countries fall into debt distress.
- Published country poverty and equity assessments that highlight the need to tackle poverty in all its dimensions, including through greater investments in human capital, agriculture, and rural development.
- Convened the Private Sector Investment Lab which is working to address the barriers preventing private sector investment in emerging markets.
Poverty alleviation. Around 700 million people live in extreme poverty on less than $2.15 per day. To help improve their lives, we provide policymakers with economic analyses and work with them to develop policy recommendations. Several of our country poverty and equity assessments in fiscal 2024 highlighted the need to tackle poverty in all its dimensions, including through greater investments in human capital, agriculture, and rural development. Our research assessed how countries can help vulnerable people adapt to risks and protect their welfare in the face of extreme weather events and other shocks. We are also helping countries improve their data for policymaking.
We work with partners to accelerate solutions to fight poverty. For example, we hosted a conference with the international movement ATD-Fourth World and the IMF to address the hidden dimensions of poverty. In partnership with the UN, we analyzed child-poverty trends and found that around 333 million children are living in extreme poverty. We also co-organized an Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Development Goal 1 to create tangible policy guidance and practical actions for the 2024 UN High-level Political Forum.
Economic policies for growth and jobs. Weak revenue collection, higher levels of debt, and global interest rate hikes have pressured development expenditures in low-income countries. The World Bank has been one of the few financial lifelines to governments, especially those facing liquidity challenges. We provide highly concessional financing and innovative financial solutions, including climate-resilient debt clauses and outcome bonds. We also work with countries to strengthen their macroeconomic policy framework, mobilize more domestic revenues with equity, and build debt management capacity. To mitigate future debt risks, we have started, with the IMF, a review of the Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries and launched a joint initiative to boost domestic resource mobilization.
We also play an active and constructive role in improving the global sovereign debt and tax architectures, working with stakeholders through the G20, the G20 Common Framework, the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, and the OECD Platform for International Taxation. We support IDA countries to address debt vulnerabilities by strengthening debt and fiscal management through the complementary Sustainable Development Finance Policy.
As part of the Knowledge Compact, we started revamping core analytical products to better inform and increase the impact of our operations. We are piloting a new Public Finance Review, which now goes beyond public expenditures to analyze tax policies, and are upgrading the Country Economic Memorandum into the Growth and Jobs report to emphasize the urgency of creating more and better jobs across our client countries. Our work on economic modeling of climate change and tax policies to support the green transition also helps inform the Bank’s climate change agenda.
The World Bank also publishes research and analysis to increase understanding of development policies and programs. Our report, The Great Reversal: Prospects, Risks, and Policies in International Development Association Countries, offers the first comprehensive look at the opportunities and risks confronting the 75 countries eligible for IDA resources. Our International Debt Report is published annually, while the Global Economic Prospects report and The Commodity Markets Outlook are published twice a year.
Financial stabilization. We are helping governments improve the incentives for raising private capital for green investments and enhancing available information for investors interested in environmental objectives. This includes setting standards for sustainability-linked bonds.
In fiscal 2024, we channeled financing from the Access to Finance for Recovery and Resilience Project through the Government of Rwanda to provide a collateralized first-loss credit enhancement for the national development bank’s bond issue. Instead of offering the typical line of credit, we worked with the government to deploy roughly a third of $297.5 million project funding as credit enhancement and raise the balance from capital markets. This made it possible for private markets to finance small- and medium-sized enterprises. We have also financed risk capital to leverage private capital in Angola, Kenya, and Mozambique.
We continue to promote digital financial services as a driver of financial inclusion in developing economies, including through Project FASTT (Frictionless Affordable Safe Timely Transactions).
Strong public institutions. In fiscal 2024, the World Bank continued to help countries strengthen their public institutions, i.e., core government functions. For example, we expanded our Climate Change Institutional Assessment series, updated the Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators database, and published the Government Analytics Handbook for public sector managers. We also launched an Anticorruption Lab and published a policy paper on Beneficial Ownership Registers.
We published an assessment of Liberia’s judiciary (JUPITER) and are assessing the effectiveness of judiciaries in other countries. To promote the digitalization of government services, we published reports including Greening GovTech and GovTech in Fragile and Conflict Situations. We also published the Revenue Administration Handbook for policy makers and practitioners.
The Financial Management Umbrella Program and the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program, whose Secretariat is housed in the World Bank, continued to deliver results. In fiscal 2024, 30 PEFA assessments were completed, 11 of which involved the participation of World Bank teams. We also published the fourth Stocktaking of Public Financial Management Diagnostic Tools report.
With our client countries, we worked to mainstream gender considerations into fiscal policy and budget systems. In fiscal 2024, around $1.6 billion was mobilized through IBRD, IDA, and borrower co-financing to support Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo in integrating gender considerations into their fiscal management systems. We are also advising the Democratic Republic of Congo, Grenada, Indonesia, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Ukraine on similar reforms. We continued supporting countries to improve public procurement policies and practices, and published a report, Drivers of Delays in Procurement of Infrastructure Projects.
Enabling private investment. In fiscal 2024, the World Bank increased its support to client countries to enable business environments, strengthen private sector competitiveness, and promote the green transition of industries. Private investment plays a pivotal role in augmenting the productive capacity of economies, and creating more and better job opportunities, especially in IDA countries. In this context, Investment Climate Assessments 2.0 diagnostics have been undertaken in nearly 20 countries, identifying and prioritizing policy reforms to unlock more private investment.
Our Private Sector Investment Lab is working to address the barriers preventing private sector investment in emerging markets. Since the Lab's launch in 2023, private sector leaders have provided the World Bank Group with valuable feedback that has helped us better align our strategies, with a view to increasing the speed and scale of private finance, ultimately leveraging more private capital for development.
We also launched The Business of the State report which proposes five key principles for effective government engagement with state-owned enterprises. Our work also helped clients level the playing field between state-owned businesses and private sector players, strengthen the policy environment (e.g., policy reforms in Kenya, Morocco, and the Philippines), accelerate industrial decarbonization (e.g., via eco-industrial parks and support to innovation in Türkiye), and address key sector constraints (e.g., sustainable tourism development).
Trade facilitation. In fiscal 2024, our research explored the impact of government subsidies on trade and how the global, rules-based trading system can respond. Our trade facilitation and logistics experts advised clients on how to deploy digital solutions to speed the movement of goods across borders and through ports, thereby cutting trade costs and carbon emissions while boosting volumes. Our quarterly Trade Watch series tracks disruptions to maritime shipping and our analysis on trade and climate is helping client countries meet their emissions-reduction targets while remaining integrated in global value chains.
Planet
At-A-Glance
We are creating a more livable planet through air, water, soil health, biodiversity, forests, and climate adaptation and mitigation programs:
- Our operations are fully Paris aligned, and we are channeling 45 percent of annual financing to climate action by 2025, deployed equally between mitigation and adaptation.
- The Food Systems 2030 Umbrella Trust Fund committed $67.6 million in fiscal 2024 to strengthen preparedness for food crises and pandemics, repurpose agricultural expenditures toward sustainability, mainstream climate-smart agriculture practices, and digitize agriculture services.
- We have improved water security for nearly 400,000 farmers to date by co-financing the Sahel Irrigation Initiative Support Project
Climate action. In fiscal 2024, the World Bank Group increased its response to climate change. Our $40 billion in climate finance helped harness clean energy, build sustainable cities, preserve forests, and ensure sustainable land use. Our operations are fully Paris aligned, and we are channeling 45 percent of annual financing to climate action by 2025, deployed equally between mitigation and adaptation.
Our Forest Carbon Partnership Facility has helped strengthen high-integrity carbon markets in 15 countries and we intend to launch at least 15 country-led methane reduction programs by fiscal 2026. We are evolving our impact measurement to track net greenhouse gas emissions and the number of people made more resilient to climate risks. As of June 2024, we have published 44 Country Climate and Development Reports covering 53 countries. These provide policymakers with strategic recommendations to address climate and development priorities.
Sustainable cities and climate resilience. In fiscal 2024, the City Climate Finance Gap Fund, implemented by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, received a EUR 50 million replenishment to help more than 180 cities with their energy transitions. We also published reports to promote sustainable cities, including the Urban Flood Risk Handbook and Healthy Cities: Revisiting the Role of Cities in Promoting Health.
We relaunched our Land Conference to advance solutions for land use and climate change challenges. Japan joined our Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) Umbrella Trust Fund as a new associated trust fund (ATF), and we created a new ATF, the EU Resilient Caribbean Program. GFDRR released reports on Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience and Building Regulations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Agriculture and food. Building on the $45 billion World Bank response to the food and nutrition security crisis, our global programs focused on advancing food systems’ transformation toward productivity, resilience, and sustainability. Leveraging IDA and IBRD resources, the Food Systems 2030 Umbrella Trust Fund has committed $67.6 million in fiscal 2024, with cumulative commitments totaling $158.4 million. In 56 countries, 128 grants are financing analytics and pilot investments that strengthen preparedness for food crises and pandemics, repurpose agricultural expenditures toward sustainability, mainstream climate-smart agriculture practices, and digitize agriculture services. This includes $95 million in recipient-executed grants to reorient public expenditures toward more efficient and sustainable agriculture development in seven countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
In fiscal 2024, we also published our Recipe for a Livable Planet report, the first comprehensive global roadmap to mitigate the agrifood system’s climate impact, and established that $260 billion a year is needed for agribusiness to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. At the regional level, we published Greening Agriculture in the Western Balkans, which examines how the green transition can align with the EU's environmental and climate goals.
Nature and biodiversity. The World Bank supports countries to protect natural capital, grow and diversify businesses around natural assets, and share the benefits through jobs and livelihood improvements.
In fiscal 2024, we launched our innovative Blue Carbon Readiness Framework to expand options for countries to tap into the potential of mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses to fight climate change.
We mainstream nature across our work, including through our Environmental and Social Framework. In fiscal 2024, we published a Nature Finance Tracking Methodology to systematically capture contributions to nature.
Water security. We have improved water security for nearly 400,000 farmers to date by co-financing the Sahel Irrigation Initiative Support Project. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we are providing safe drinking water to nearly 3 million people in the capital, Kinshasa. In India, the Second National Ganga River Basin Project directly benefited 3.7 million people—adding over 2,600 km of sewer network with over 317,000 house connections—and prevented 404 million liters per day of untreated wastewater flowing into the Ganga.
In fiscal 2024, we published two new reports: Water for Shared Prosperity, with recommendations to improve water security and strengthen climate resilience; and Funding a Water-Secure Future: An Assessment of Global Public Spending, the first-ever attempt to create a comprehensive view of public financing and funding gaps in the global water sector. In collaboration with our partners, we introduced the Strategic Framework for Scaling Up Finance for Water to mobilize investments aligned with climate goals, leveraging private sector expertise and capital for strategic, cross-sectoral action. Additionally, we partnered with the government of Singapore to launch the Singapore Water Center, a hub for innovation, knowledge exchange, capacity development, and a key pillar of the World Bank Group Academy.
Social inclusion and sustainability. In fiscal 2024, we expanded platforms to build partnerships for development that go beyond government and the private sector to bring in communities and civil society. We reviewed evidence of the impact of community-led approaches to identify strengths and next steps. We partnered with civil society on a Green Accountability initiative to enable more transparent, accountable, and effective deployment of funds to combat climate change. And we strengthened the Bank’s support for building client capacity to manage social conflicts around development, including through a new offering in the World Bank Group Academy.
Infrastructure
At-A-Glance
We are working to improve energy systems, roads, and bridges. In fiscal 2024, we:
- Committed to provide electricity access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 in partnership with the African Development Bank.
- Announced a major overhaul of our guarantee business with the goal of boosting annual guarantee issuance to $20 billion by 2030. This will help mitigate risk and catalyze private finance in development projects.
- Lent more than $5 billion to 33 new projects addressing road safety, logistics, climate-resilient connectivity and decarbonization.
Access to sustainable energy. As one of the largest financiers for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in developing countries, we are committed to expanding energy access and meeting climate goals while phasing out fossil fuels. In the last five years, we have committed about $15 billion in renewable energy generation, invested $6.5 billion to support energy efficiency, approved $7.4 billion to support energy access, and connected or improved electricity for 63 million people.
In fiscal 2024, we launched innovative new programs to meet global energy challenges. The Europe and Central Asia Renewable Energy Scale-up Program will enhance energy security and affordability over 10 years, providing 15 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity and reducing 240 million metric tons of carbon emissions in the region. The Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation Program will put 20 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa on the path to universal energy access, providing sustainable and clean energy access to 100 million people by 2030. This work supports our ambition to provide electricity access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 in partnership with the African Development Bank. The expected private sector investment opportunities in distributed renewable energy alone will be worth roughly $9 billion.
We launched the Resilient and Inclusive Supply-chain Enhancement Partnership to diversify mineral supply chains and help low- and middle-income countries capture a larger share of the growing demand for minerals. Our Hydrogen for Development Partnership, founded and supported by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, facilitated $1.5 billion in concessional financing in fiscal 2024—the largest hydrogen engagement among all multilateral development banks—to ramp up clean hydrogen projects in India. We released the report The Critical Link: Empowering Utilities for the Energy Transition, with recommendations on how to assess utilities' ability to deliver reliable, clean, and affordable power.
Over the past three decades, we have provided more than $3 billion to help governments close coal mines and power plants while protecting workers and the environment. Our work on the just transition in coal regions is one of five priorities under the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan for 2021–25. We also work with governments and the private sector to reduce emissions and in December 2023, we launched the Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, a $255 million fund to help developing countries cut carbon dioxide and methane emissions generated by the oil and gas industry.
Infrastructure finance. Infrastructure connects people with employment opportunities, promotes economic growth, and improves livelihoods. It also impacts our planet's livability, as infrastructure both generates climate-changing emissions and is vulnerable to climate change effects. Transitioning to sustainable infrastructure demands trillions of dollars, but with government budgets often stretched thin, innovative financing and private sector investment are essential to bridging the financing gap.
Our Private Participation in Infrastructure report showed that infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income countries totaled $86 billion in 2023, representing a 5 percent decrease from 2022, but on par with the previous five-year period. In response, we are leveraging the full suite of our financing instruments to remove the constraints blocking private sector investment. In fiscal 2024, we announced a major overhaul of our guarantee business with the goal of boosting annual guarantee issuance to $20 billion by 2030. This will help mitigate risk and catalyze private finance in development projects.
Sustainable and resilient transport. In fiscal 2024, we lent more than $5 billion to 33 new projects addressing road safety, logistics, climate-resilient connectivity and decarbonization. The Global Facility to Decarbonize Transport welcomed Spain as a new member and received $3.8 million in funding, bringing the group’s total pledged funding to just over $13 million.
Several of our projects launched in fiscal 2024 following years of collaborative development. In December 2023, Metro Line One opened to the public in Quito, Ecuador. Funded in part by the World Bank Group, the metro line serves 400,000 passengers daily and is expected to reduce emissions from transport by an estimated 67,000 tons of CO2 each year. In Dakar, Senegal, an electric-powered bus rapid transit system was launched to serve 320,000 commuters and should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.2 million tons over a 30-year period. Going forward, we will use the World Bank Gender Strategy, published in June 2024, to increase the number of women in transportation leadership roles to equalize the sector.
Digital
At-A-Glance
We are enabling digitalization to transform our world for the better. In fiscal 2024:
- Our Digital lending portfolio comprised a record 53 active projects, representing $5.6 billion in total net commitments as of June 2024.
- The inaugural Global Digital Summit brought together digital thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners to explore the emerging opportunities and risks of digital transformation for development.
- We created a dedicated Digital Vice Presidency unit within the World Bank to maintain momentum for digital transformation across all sectors.
Scaling digital development. Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The critical services that support development—like hospitals, schools, energy, and agriculture—rely on connectivity and data. In low-income countries, billions of people are still offline or lacking digital identification and skills. To close the digital divide, we collaborate with governments in more than 100 developing countries to build strong and trusted foundations and enablers for digital economies to thrive. The Digital lending portfolio comprised a record 53 active projects, representing $5.6 billion in total net commitments as of June 2024. More than a third of commitments (37 percent) were approved in fiscal 2024. Demand from middle-income countries also increased from 5 percent in fiscal 2021 to 24 percent in fiscal 2024, reflecting the recognition of the essential role digital technologies play in climate resilience, economic growth, job creation, and public service delivery.
Thought leadership and partnerships. Our inaugural Global Digital Summit, hosted in March 2024, brought together digital thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners to explore the emerging opportunities and risks of digital transformation for development. We expanded access to data and knowledge through several publications, including the global flagship Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023, which highlighted the accelerating pace of digitalization and the potential of artificial intelligence for development. The Green Digital Transformation report highlighted how to make digital transformation sustainable and leverage digital technologies for climate action.
We expanded our group of development partners through several trust funds—such as the Digital Development Partnership, the associated Cybersecurity Multi Donor Trust Fund, the Identification for Development and Government-to-Person Payments initiatives—to accelerate inclusive, safe, and sustainable digitalization.
Digital Vice Presidency unit. To maintain momentum for digital transformation across all sectors, we created a dedicated Digital Vice Presidency unit within the World Bank, effective fiscal 2025. The unit will support clients to build digital infrastructure and data platforms; enhance cybersecurity and data protection and privacy; support digital entrepreneurship, skills, and jobs; and implement digital government services.
Across our five thematic knowledge Vice Presidency units, we prioritize four cross-cutting themes: Gender and Youth, Jobs, Private Capital Mobilization, and Fragility, Conflict, and Violence.
Gender and Youth
At-A-Glance
In fiscal 2024, 95 percent of Bank-financed operations used gender analysis to identify entry points to advance gender equality and measure the impact of specific actions, compared to 50 percent in fiscal 2017. We are investing in young people to help them transition into adulthood and productive employment and in fiscal 2024, we published the first global analysis of the online gig economy.
Gender
The World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030 sets out three strategic objectives to achieve gender equality: end gender-based violence and elevate human capital; expand and enable economic opportunities; and engage women as leaders. Informed by a two-year multistakeholder consultation process, three retrospectives and a series of policy notes, the strategy identifies innovation, financing, and collective action as drivers of change toward gender equality. Our work is focused on investing in women and girls while also addressing the disadvantages facing men and boys and the vulnerabilities arising from the intersection of gender with poverty, ethnicity, disability, and other characteristics.
Through IDA, we tackle challenges at the forefront of gender equality and girls’ and women’s empowerment, including around sexual and reproductive health, childcare, economic inclusion, entry of women into higher-skilled jobs, gender-based violence, and fiscal-policy and budget-system reforms. IDA resources have supported over 300 country-led actions in targeted areas and reached more than 700 million women and girls since fiscal 2015.
Our Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) supports innovative, scalable public and private sector solutions through new evidence and data, mainly in low-income countries and those affected by fragility, conflict and violence. UFGE has influenced over 300 World Bank projects, and shaped policy dialogue and reforms in 105 countries. It has also spurred gender-smart initiatives in over 80 private sector companies, including on women's leadership and access to housing finance.
Our Gender Data Portal makes gender statistics accessible through compelling narratives and interactive data visualizations. Building on resources and guidance produced under the Living Standards Measurement Study–Plus program and the Strengthening Gender Statistics project, it serves as a one-stop shop for global gender data, spotlighting more than 1,000 indicators for 217 economies.
Our annual report, Women, Business, and the Law, measures the laws and regulations affecting women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The 2024 report found that women enjoy fewer than two-thirds the rights of men, far less than the previous estimate of three-quarters, due to the introduction of new indicators on women’s safety from violence and access to childcare services. No country provides equal opportunity for women, and closing gender gaps could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20 percent—essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade.
Legal reforms that enhance women’s economic opportunities include prohibiting gender-based discrimination in financial services and products; lifting restrictions on the types of jobs and sectors imposed on women; mandating equity in pay; and establishing leave policies and protection from sexual harassment at the workplace. Our programs supported 14 gender-focused legal reforms in Jordan, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone in 2024.
Our programs help women participate in economic activity, promote productive economic inclusion and work to end gender-based violence. In Zambia, the Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods project has supported about 140,000 women to improve their livelihoods and close to 150,000 disadvantaged adolescent girls to enroll in secondary school. In Pakistan, the Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness Program supports women’s access to digitalized government services after natural disasters and during public health emergencies, including access to social protection, employment, and sexual- and gender-based-violence support services.
Through our support for the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative and investments by IFC and MIGA, we help unlock financing and support systems for women-led and -owned businesses in developing countries. In Panama, IFC’s investment in housing finance for women is increasing the portfolio of mortgages for women, especially low- to middle-income households headed by women.
Youth
Our work on youth focuses on investing in young people to ensure that they are ready to transition into adulthood and productive employment. Our extensive support for formal education aims to provide youth with the learning and skills they will need to succeed in a rapidly changing labor market. For youth outside of formal education, we support improvements in access to practical skills programs. In Bangladesh, we provided $300 million to equip about 900,000 disadvantaged rural youth—many of whom are female—with skills, alternative education, entrepreneurship support, and employment opportunities. In India, we have committed $195 million to training, upskilling, and providing more than 300,000 people with jobs in high-growth sectors including renewable energy, information and technology services, and hospitality.
We also support job creation and work opportunities for youth through loans and grants. For example, in Madagascar more than 30,000 jobs were created by strengthening the enabling environment for entrepreneurship and by channeling private investments in productive infrastructure and improved services delivery. Through the $70 million South Sudan Women and Social and Economic Empowerment Project, we aim to help female entrepreneurs formalize and grow their businesses; as well as help survivors of gender-based violence access vital services.
In Kenya, a multifaceted approach—comprising trainings, internships, apprenticeships, start-up capital, and information provision—has benefitted more than 300,000 youth. Our $150 million Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project boosted employment and earnings for youth who have experienced extended unemployment or engaged in vulnerable jobs. Participants received a mix of training, internships, apprenticeships, business start-up grants, coaching, and access to an online one-stop-shop information platform. More than 350,000 youth benefitted directly from the project, and 30,000 benefitted indirectly, while those previously employed saw a 20 percent increase in their income.
At the intersection of these efforts is the World Bank Group’s dedicated program on youth employment, Solutions for Youth Employment, which brings together donors, governments, foundations, private sector companies, civil society, and youth to support catalytic actions to increase the number of young people engaged in productive work.
Jobs
At-A-Glance
Jobs are at the heart of development, and in fiscal 2024, the World Bank Group supported 392 jobs-related projects by leveraging over $68 billion in active commitments.
Overview
Good, inclusive jobs are the surest pathway out of poverty. The limited availability of these jobs, particularly for women and youth, is a pressing problem. In developing countries, only a third of employment is in the formal sector, and many people work in informal jobs that are low-paying and lack security. With support from the Jobs Umbrella Multidonor Trust Fund, the Bank Group leverages large-scale investment projects to improve job outcomes and support the transition to greener economies, offering dividends for both the environment and workers.
In Zambia, a multi-year project ending in fiscal 2024 boosted market linkages for 32,700 farmers and small and medium-size business owners. This led to respective increases of 27 percent and 73 percent in their sales and mobilized $4.8 billion in private capital. In Burundi, we invested $50 million in approximately 200 companies to increase private early-stage equity finance for innovative small and medium enterprises and create jobs. The project mobilized $58.3 million for early-stage seed capital and venture capital through project investment. A project in Lebanon created 647,000 labor days of short-term jobs for Lebanese and Syrians through investments in road infrastructure, spurring post-COVID economic recovery.
Through the Solutions for Youth Employment task force, the Bank Group supports youth employment and connects stakeholders with over 150 related operations. In September 2023, we published the report Working Without Borders, the first global analysis of the online gig economy.
Private Capital Mobilization
At-A-Glance
The private sector is essential to closing the financing gap in developing countries. In fiscal 2024, the World Bank Group engaged the private sector through platforms such as the Private Sector Investment Lab, Guarantee Platform, and IDA Private Sector Window.
Overview
Enabling private sector investment and capital flows are core activities and a priority of the World Bank Group. The three pillars of our approach—enabling private capital, building capital investment pipelines, and establishing private capital connectors—provide the blueprint to massively increasing the amount of private capital flowing into developing countries to advance development priorities.
Through the Private Sector Investment Lab, the World Bank Group is forging partnerships with private sector leaders to dismantle barriers impeding investment flows to emerging markets. The World Bank Group Guarantee Platform aims to scale political risk insurance to over $20 billion annually by 2030. And the expansion of the Global Emerging Markets Risk Database is making credit risk data more transparent to unlock greater private capital flows.
The IDA Private Sector Window (PSW) leverages IDA’s resources and helps mobilize sustainable private sector investment in the poorest and most fragile markets. With the support of the IDA PSW, the first private equity fund targeted at small- and medium-sized enterprises was introduced in the Kyrgyz Republic, the first utility-scale renewable energy project is being implemented in Djibouti, the first global risk-sharing platform was created targeting Base of the Pyramid financing to reach the poor, and critically needed working capital is being provided to a group of Yemeni companies that produce and distribute basic food staples in the country.
Fragility, Conflict, and Violence
At-A-Glance
Helping countries address fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) is central to our work. The World Bank Group’s financing for countries affected by FCV stands at an all-time high.
Overview
By 2030, nearly 60 percent of the world’s extreme poor will be in FCV-affected countries. An estimated 314 million extremely poor people live in 39 countries classified as fragile or conflict-affected. The World Bank Group’s FCV Strategy (2020-2025) guides our efforts to help them.
The Mid-Term Review of the FCV Strategy, published in fiscal 2024, concluded that we engaged in conflict situations—in Afghanistan, Haiti, the Sahel region, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Yemen—to deliver basic services to people and protect institutions and development gains. For example, 7.2 million people in conflict situations benefitted from the World Bank’s job-focused interventions between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2022. We made significant progress in helping countries include refugees in their development priorities—expanding access to jobs, infrastructure, and services for refugees and their host communities.
Bank Group financing for countries affected by FCV stands at an all-time high. Average annual IDA financing for fragile and conflict-affected countries has increased nearly fivefold since IDA16, reaching 38 percent of total IDA resources, with more than half of the grants going to countries affected by FCV in fiscal 2021. The IDA20 replenishment will continue to allocate a significant share of resources to fragile and conflict-affected countries through June 2025. Crisis preparedness is a new cross-cutting issue under IDA20, as the poorest countries affected by FCV often experience complex crises. IFC and MIGA also leverage the IDA Private Sector Window to offer support and guarantees to help catalyze private sector investments in fragile economies.
IDA support includes the FCV envelope (a top-up in addition to regular IDA allocations), as well as windows to support refugees and host communities, respond to crises (including for food security), and promote regional approaches. About $8.8 billion has been set aside for the FCV envelope in IDA20 for eligible countries—an increase of 63 percent compared to IDA19 ($5.4 billion). In fiscal 2024, this includes $1.3 billion to help governments prevent conflicts from escalating. It also includes $252 million to help two countries transition out of fragility, and $179 million to remain engaged in high-intensity conflict settings in two countries. Another $2.4 billion has been set aside for the Window for Host Communities and Refugees in IDA20, with $1.2 billion approved in fiscal 2024.
The State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund is the World Bank’s leading global trust fund supporting implementation of the FCV Strategy. In 2023, the fund financed 42 grants in 30 countries with a total fund value of $51.3 million.
Middle-income countries host 58 percent of refugees, more than three-quarters of whom tend to stay for more than five years. The Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) supports middle-income countries that host large numbers of refugees. In 2023, $159.4 million in GCFF grant funding was allocated to Benefiting Countries, enabling $1.1 billion in multilateral development bank loans on concessional terms and unlocking a combined total of $1.3 billion. To date, 15.8 million individuals, including at least 6.3 million refugees and 7.2 million host community members, have benefited from GCFF-supported operations in Armenia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jordan, Lebanon, and Moldova.
We engage with humanitarian, security, and peace partners because successful development in fragile countries requires peace and security. We partner with UN agencies and others to deliver on our development mandate in these countries. In exceptional circumstances, we rely on these partners to help provide basic services to people in conflict situations—with total financing of $8.6 billion to UN partners since 2015. In the Central African Republic, Somalia, and South Sudan, for example, we have teamed up with the UN Development Programme, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Food Programme to support social safety nets, including cash-transfer programs.
World Bank Annual Report 2024 Downloads
The World Bank Annual Report 2024 is available to download in multiple languages via the links below (data is as of September 29, 2024, unless otherwise specified).
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) are two of the five institutions of the World Bank Group (WBG). Each institution publishes its own annual report, all of which are available online.